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RICHMOND, Ind. — The Artist's Palette Traveling Trophy is headed back to Northeastern after the 18th Annual All Wayne County High School Art Exhibition honors were awarded Saturday, April 20.
With her mixed media piece "Untitled," Northeastern junior Holly Hancock won the Best of Show Award art exhibition conducted at the Richmond Art Museum.
Hancock won $250 for winning the exhibition, while Seton Catholic junior Fabian Aleman won $150 for his watercolor painting "Post Meridian" and Richmond junior Marcy Hartman was awarded $100 for her third-place piece "The Empress."
There were 437 entries this year with the top three being awarded in 10 different categories before Best Overall.
Hancock finds art in beginning of pandemic
Hancock has been doing art since the start of the pandemic in 2020, using it as her inspiration.
"I never was really interested into art until the beginning of COVID," she said. "I saw a bunch of people taking up art and I thought that I might want to try it, and I ended up loving it."
Hancock thanked her art teacher Trisha Peters for encouraging her to continue to pursue and work on new pieces.
"She was always saying that she loved my art, so I wanted to go and try and share it with other people," Hancock said.
The inspiration for her Best of Show piece, she said, was a picture that she found online of a portrait of a person in a saran tin, deciding on making her own version of it over the span of about a week.
"I used mostly marker," she said. "I used some pencil, paint marker and white gel pen."
When she heard her name announced, Hancock said she "was shaking and on the verge of tears" and that it was "very exciting but very nerve wracking."
"It was one of the best times of my life," she said of the experience. "I really appreciate all of you guys, everybody that went and participated in here and everybody that worked on the art competition. ... I am planning on being a full-time artist. I do want to go to art school at some point and have this as my full-time career."
Hancock had another work accepted in this year's competition, a waterfall created with markers and paint markers.
Hagerstown freshman first in sculpture category
Annabel Jones, a freshman at Hagerstown High School who was also in attendance, won first place for her "Untitled" piece in the sculpture category.
Jones' sculpture was based on the doll featured in Korn's fourth studio album "Issues," released in 1999. Jones said the metal band is one of her favorites.
"In sixth grade, I just got really into music and stuff and started making art about music," she said. "I play bass and drums and do covers on songs."
Jones started creating artwork when she saw her friends were entering their work in art shows, thinking she could do that as well. This was Jones' first art competition she's entered.
"I didn't expect a win at all because a lot of this stuff is really good," she said. "My favorite piece is Sodo from the band Ghost with the bass because I like Ghost."
Jones said she has aspirations to become a bassist but would like to continue art, possibly painting a mural.
What is the Artist's Palette Traveling Trophy?
Lance Crow, education director at the Richmond Art Museum and overseer of the exhibition, said the trophy was introduced for the show's 10th anniversary.
The idea came from the traveling trophies various athletics nationwide, of all levels, present each year. Lincoln's Kiley Kuhn won the trophy for the Golden Eagles the first year it was awarded. Aside from no awards presented in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID, it's been traveling to county schools ever since.
"We're trying to move the importance of the arts back on par with athletics and this might be a way to do that," Crow said.
Last year's winner was Northeastern's Alivia Bleil, who brought the trophy to Fountain City for the first time, and the school where it will stay for another year.
Winners of the Artist's Palette Traveling Trophy
- 2016: Kiley Kuhn, Lincoln High School
- 2017: Kate Wallace, Lincoln High School
- 2018: Kianna Dudas, Centerville High School
- 2019: Katherine "Kit" Marcum, Richmond High School
- 2020: Covid, no exhibit held
- 2021: Covid, teacher curated exhibit with no awards presented
- 2022: Ada Fowler, Richmond High School
- 2023: Alivia Bleil, Northeastern High School
- 2024: Holly Hancock, Northeastern High School
The show was judged by a single juror, visiting lecturer for fine arts at Indiana University East Sam Kelly, who spent four to five hours judging the show, Crow said.
'One of the most important exhibits every year'
Crow oversees the program each year, and as education director, spoke of the importance of the exhibition.
"It's one of the one of the most important exhibits that we do every year, in my opinion, because it speaks directly to our mission of focusing on K through 12," he said. "A lot of these senior art students are preparing to go to college and so this gives them a great opportunity to learn about juried exhibition and the process of submitting putting together a portfolio. For the younger kids, it's a really unique opportunity for them to display their artwork in a museum setting."
It's the third competition in a row that Richmond Art Museum has sponsored for high school students;, the previous night it hosted the 17th Annual Phantoscope Film Festival for high school filmmakers, and a recent skateboard design competition where the top three will have their skateboards made onto real boards and gifted to them by painter, designer and judge Latosha Ann Stone.
"There are so many opportunities for our young athletes in the county, and so we kind of consider this the 'art sectional' or the county tournament, so to speak of the arts, and it really is important for RAM to shine a spotlight on the talented young artists in the county," Crow said. "What better way than to open our galleries to them to do that."
The exhibit will be on display through May 18.
Crow also announced the top three skateboard designs at Saturday's exhibition, with third place going to Cayden Meyers, second to Na'Myia Carico and first place to Lindsey Lear.
Evan Weaver is a news and sports reporter at The Palladium-Item. Contact him on X (@evan_weaver7) or email ateweaver@gannett.com.
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