For the 36th year in a row, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas is shining a spotlight on up-and-coming young artists with its “Protégé” competition, which is on display through April 3.
This year’s juror, Kurt Dyrhaug, art professor and distinguished Faculty Research Fellow at Lamar University, selected 18 works from the 68 entries for the show.
High school seniors from the 12 Texas counties that encompass a 90-mile radius from AMSET are eligible. Of the more than 30 schools in the area, 14 schools submitted entries, which were limited to one per student, Christle Feagin, AMSET curator of education programs, said.
Prizes were announced at a Tuesday reception, with Emma Hill from Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School earning the $2,500 Stewart M. Chisum and Bessie Fisher Chisum Scholarship. Hill also earned a four-year scholarship to the Lamar University art department worth $500 for each semester, and a $200 certificate for art supplies.
“This is my first art competition I’ve ever been able to enter and to go away with first place gives me a lot more art confidence in my abilities,” she said.
Hill’s winning entry, titled “A Helping Hand,” features a hand stitching an open wound.
“I’m going to follow my father’s footsteps and do sports medicine,” she said. “So, I did a biology-based portfolio, which is one of the pieces that you see here. Tonight, I’m starting to think of maybe minoring in art.”
Second place, worth $450 a semester for four years to the LU art department and $150 in art supplies, was awarded to Abigail Homuth from Port Neches-Groves High School for her mixed media “Franken Fox.” Third place, worth $400 a semester for four years to the LU art department and $100 in art supplies was awarded to Madison Burch from Kelly for her mixed media “By the Light of the Moon.”
Honorable mentions were given to Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School’s Carlee Dupuy, Silsbee High School’s Lauren Elizabeth Shivers and PN-G’s Araceli Trevino.
Hill’s teacher, Roy Bares, was awarded a $100 certificate for classroom art supplies.
The number of entries ebbs and flows, Feagin said. But the number of entries is up from last year, although lower than the average 80-110 from pre-COVID times.
“We’ve had up to 200 entries, we usually hover in between 80 and 110 — that is normal,” she said. “We do know several very high participating schools were having trouble COVID related. I think we’ll be back to normal next year for sure.”
Protégé does not have a theme, unlike some other high school art contests. Feagin said the idea is for students to showcase what they’re doing already in school.
Abigail Homuth placed second at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas’ 36th-annual Potégé art show.
“We don’t ask for anything specific, so we don’t think students are necessarily creating just for us,” she said. “We’re not asking them to paint a picture of what America means to them. It’s just whatever they’re working on, we will gladly take it.”
While Protégé is an opportunity to connect with students, Feagin said there is an added benefit.
“I think Protégé is one of the few programs that we at the museum get to see that has an indication of the art teachers they’re working with, because that is very seldom the case,” she said. “(The students) come in with a style, they come in with certain mediums. There might be 15 entries from one school, but you can see (the teacher), either the projects that were given or (they’re) heavy on pastels. At its essence, you can see the art education that these students are receiving. It’s one thing that teachers have a stamp on when the work comes in here as a whole.
Madison Burch placed third at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas’ 36th-annual Potégé art show.
“There’s always some very innovative student who is working in something outside of the realm of anything they’ve ever been given because they’re exploratory, but for the most part, I can see the teachers. I can say that because I’ve been doing this for 10 years, I can see over the years, usually where a student comes from if I were to be given the room full of work.”
The selected students get the complete experience of being an exhibiting artist. Apart from the show itself, all selected artists are required to attend a framing and matting workshop, where the students prepare their works for hanging. All of the framing is specific to the student’s piece, Feagin said.
“They do that with our curatorial team,” she said. “We don’t have a standard frame we order, even the glass (is cut) to every piece.”
Market Basket has sponsored Protégé for all 36 years making it possible to buy the supplies, which is not a cheap endeavor, Feagin said.
Once the supplies are collected, the students are required to do their own assembly, from the hinging tape to learning what the spacers are for, Feagin said.
“(They learn) why they’re making this microcosm environment of what archival is, why it’s important even for the glass to be cleaned,” she said. “They learn that light is going to be beaming on it, so every little fingerprint and dust inside, even though you can’t see it, once we throw that light on it, (it shows).
“We try to expose them to everything it takes to go into an exhibition.”
The Protégé exhibition will be on display at AMSET through April 3 and then will tour to several locations, including Lamar University.
The Art Museum of Southeast Texas is located at 500 Main St. in downtown Beaumont.
For more information, visit amset.org .
English with a bit of Texas 