The Scholastic Awards national office is dedicated to growing local affiliate programs across the country, and we are grateful for our long-standing local affiliates who have built strong programs that recognize the talents of creative teens in their communities. The Miami Valley Art Region in Ohio is dedicated to recognizing, showcasing and exhibiting their region’s young artists. We were lucky to catch up with Rebecca Sargent, TEJAS Director, to hear about what’s new in the Miami Valley region, and they’re up to a lot!
Read on to learn more about the Miami Valley Art Region, and if you are an artist in the region, you can still submit your artwork to the Awards! The deadline for all Miami Valley art submissions is this Friday, January 9, 2015.
About the Miami Valley Art Region
As the Miami Valley Regional Affiliate, K12 Gallery & TEJAS is pleased to host and coordinate The Scholastic Art Awards for the greater Miami Valley area. All teens in grades 7-12 that reside in the counties of Montgomery, Greene, Preble, Clark, Miami, Champaign, Shelby, Dark and Logan are eligible to enter their work in the Awards.
K12 Gallery & TEJAS is a non profit visual arts center offering innovative arts programs for all ages in the Miami Valley. We inspire people of all ages to imagine, learn and create in a unique, encouraging environment. Located in Downtown Dayton, Ohio, K12 Gallery & TEJAS offers a variety of programs including after school, weekday, and weekend art classes, children’s exhibitions, professionally mounted adult exhibitions, community outreach, in school art programs, public art, summer art camps, field trips, and workshops. K12 Gallery began offering innovative youth art classes and exhibitions in 1993, the brainchild of Executive Director Jerri Stanard. Seeing the need to offer studio classes and exhibitions to fit the needs of teens and adults, K12 created TEJAS, our Teen Educational Joint Adult Studios. K12 Gallery & TEJAS, growing to where they now serve over 32,000 people annually, bought a new building in 2010. With over 30,000 square feet of space, K12 Gallery & TEJAS is proud to now be able to offer darkroom photography, clay, stained glass, sculpture, painting & drawing, printmaking, hot glass, jewelry design, metal forging and mixed media classes. Our next big project, coming in the winter of 2016, will be our new Glass Blowing studio.
K12 is deeply committed to serving the Dayton community. It has a variety of programs that work to impact the community, including: AIR (artist in residence) program, currently bringing vital visual arts programming to 10 urban schools in our community. AIT (artist in training), our teen after school art program offering exceptional visual arts classes for students in grades 7-12 three days a week. HAALO and 30/60/90, public art programs with court involved youth and adults. Through the generous support of sponsors and donors, K12 Gallery & TEJAS provides scholarships to approximately 1/4 of it’s students in all programs, mostly coming from within the city limits of Dayton.
This is the third year that K12 Gallery & TEJAS has been the affiliate for the Miami Valley Region. Thorough it’s outreach efforts, K12 has has continued to increase submissions by 25% yearly in it’s region. The time invested in this program impacts over 1,500 people each year and aligns with our mission to inspire people of all ages to imagine, learn, and create art in a unique and encouraging environment.
Our Most Recent Projects
K12 Gallery & TEJAS is dedicated to the community of Dayton; its people and places are what fuel our creative ambition. Within the last 21 years, K12 has overseen the creation and installation of many public artworks in the Dayton area. We work with local artists, community members, and organizations to complete these large scale public works of art.
HAALO, a partnership with the Montgomery County Juvenile Courts, public art program for Court Involved Youth, paintings on display abandoned buildings throughout our city (most prominently at Sears and Third Streets).
30/60/90 Public Art Program, a partnership with Montgomery County Courts: Most recently created a series of 4 murals that adorn the outside of the Montgomery County Courthouse Building. Through the 30/60/90 program, incarcerated adults come to K12 Gallery & TEJAS one day a week and assist on construction, woodworking or painting projects in addition to the public art portion.
Program Goals
To receive submissions from four new schools and continue to increase student submissions by 25%.
Outreach Goals
Make visits to four new schools/art departments each outreach period. Rebecca Sargent, TEJAS Director has a Power Point slide presentation that she presents to art classes and art clubs.
Sponsorship Goals
K12 Gallery & TEJAS has worked to create new partnerships this year with local Universities, Frame shops, and Art Supply Stores. K12 is also please to now be offering two new awards: a cash award and a Scholarship through these partnerships to Gold Key winning Seniors.
Exhibition and Award Ceremony Goals
Because we understand just how amazing this opportunity is for creative young students, we continually work to make the exhibition and awards ceremony more spectacular then the year before. This includes how the show is hung and represented (as well as PR/media it receives). This year, we are incorporating 10 student spotlights throughout the exhibition. These spotlights will feature a photograph and paragraph about the artist’s process in their artwork. This interactive experience will allow viewers a deeper understanding of the artwork and artist. Further more, we will also be hosting a series of field trips that will give schools the opportunity to view the exhibition and create a hands on art activity that will help them further explore a visual art process and theme.
Award Recipient Goals
K12 Gallery & TEJAS is also please to be able to offer four paid mural art apprenticeships to four winners from the Scholastic Art Awards. K12 consistently has 2-3 large scale public art projects that it works on throughout the summer. Teens who receive these mural art apprenticeships will gain the experience of working on a gigantic project that impacts the community. One student will also be given a summer teaching apprenticeship and will help teach a Portfolio Development class.
National Celebration Goals
Over the last two years, K12 has hosted a bus trip to NYC in order for Award-winning students to be able to participate in the National Celebration events. Because many of the Miami Valley Region award winners come from economically deprived areas, K12 is seeking new strategies to enable more winners to participate. This year, they will be streaming the National Award Ceremony live at their art center and will have a DJ and art making activities in hopes of allowing more National winners to directly connect with the experience.
Keep in touch with the Miami Valley Art Region: