On Apr. 2, Quad City Arts hosted its 48th annual high school invitational event. The exhibit features the most exceptional art pieces by high school students in the Quad City area, ranging from paintings and drawings to multimedia sculptures and short films.
This year, Pleasant Valley had 21 entries (19 student entries and two teacher entries) and seven artists win a total of 13 awards, taking home $2200 in cash prizes. Some of the highlights from these awards include junior Sherry Tang’s “Fill the Quota” ballpoint and paint pen piece, which won four awards including best of show, and art teacher David Schaeffer’s second place prize for his piece “Dive for Your Dreams” in the teacher’s category, placing for the first time in PV history in over a decade.
Preparing for Quad City Arts is something that takes months, from making high quality art pieces to presenting them at the event. However, they give great opportunities for kids that want to pursue art related careers. “Packaging, transporting, hanging and displaying art are really valuable learning experiences for students interested in art careers,” art teacher Rachel Schepers said. “QCA shows students that they can make a career in art and they give students tons of opportunities to build an impressive resume.”
Overall, this event is significant for students, as they try to frame these pieces to make them look professional and presentable.
Quad City Arts is essentially a large room with walls filled with paintings and drawings and rows of sculptures and other multimedia pieces. While crowded, it gives young artists a chance to connect with other artists ,teachers and judges as well, providing a unique yet engaging environment for all young artists. “I got to talk with a couple of young artists around the area in particular and enjoy all the different styles and mediums. While that’s not typical for a museum, at QCA, there are hundreds of pieces on four walls, and it is essentially a pinterest board made by young artists,” junior Sherry Tang said.
Not only is art a great creative outlet to express emotions, but it is a passion that may be overshadowed by the rise of artificial intelligence. While human-made art requires time, practice and artistic talent, AI can generate images in seconds from a simple prompt. “People may argue that art made by humans is losing its value but I think it’s more important now,” Tang added. “There should be more importance placed on art made by humans with ingenuity and creativity so they can continue to produce their own original work without the fear of artificial intelligence.”
This event is very important, not only to incentivize students to make art, but to help them find a useful creative outlet. Exposing art classes to students at the high school level lets them learn more about their passions and explore additional career options.
