Art show goes virtual

Cloud County Community College’s annual high school Art Show has gone virtual in 2021.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has limited the number of in-person events at the college, Art instructor Amy Kern coordinated a Virtual Art Show for area schools. Nine high schools submitted more than 90 pieces of artwork to be judged virtually.

This year’s digital format allowed each school to enter up to 10 pieces of work, which were then judged by Kern, Brigitte Bruna and Jennifer Taphorn.

Bruna graduated from K-State in 2011, and has been freelancing in the visual communications industry for the past eight years. Several of her most notable clients are the Department of Communications and Agricultural Education at K-State and the Oz Museum in Wamego.

Taphorn is the owner of Taphorn Design, and is a graduate of Fort Hays State University. She has worked in the design industry as an ad production manager for The Taos News, and a production manager, designer and web designer for The Taos Magazine. She is currently freelancing and working in the technical publications department for Landoll Company, LLC.

Kern has been the instructor in visual communications at Cloud for the past two years. She is a graduate of Fort Hays and received her master’s degree from Savannah College of Art and Design. Prior to teaching at Cloud, she was marketing director at LW Marketing, an advertising agency in Florida.

Schools who participated in the 2021 Virtual Art Show were: Centralia, Southern Cloud, Frankfort, Little River, Republic County, Rock Hills, Smith Center, Washington County, and Pike Valley.

Best of Show award went to Ye Gang Lee, from Republic County for acrylic painting.

The “best of” awards for each category are as follows:

Best of Oil: Maggie Armstrong, Frankfort
Best of Acrylic: Ye Gang Lee, Republic County
Best of Watercolor: Kacia Shirley, Frankfort
Best of Drawing: Abigail Rose, Frankfort
Best of Mixed Media: Carril Rego, Smith Center
Best of Photography: Carolina Barraza, Pike Valley
Best of Ceramics: Clarissa Koch, Centralia
Best of Jewelry: Carolina Barraza, Pike Valley

A slideshow of all the award winning artwork can be found at: https://www.cloud.edu/academics/fields-of-study/humanitiesfine-arts/art-events/.