The 2020 Online Student Art Show
The 2020 Online Show coincided with schools closing because of the Coronavirus. The Student Art Fund is very pleased that we were able to offer an opportunity to Art Teachers and students whose usual end-of-the-year school art exhibits were cancelled. Art Teachers were especially challenged with creating lessons during the months of “Zoom Teaching.” They told us that the motivation of an online exhibit with prizes in five categories was very helpful for keeping students engaged and challenged. This years’ show has extra categories and three times the usual number of entries! We hope that students and teachers enjoy seeing their own and their peers’ work exhibited, and that the public sees the wonderful art education our youth are receiving in our local public schools.
The show includes artwork created by students from junior high and high school art classrooms in Santa Barbara, Carpinteria and Goleta. The submitted artwork was evaluated and sponsored by art teachers at each school. Each art teacher was permitted to sponsor up to ten pieces per category. Three equal Awards of Excellence have been awarded by Juror John Houchin for each category of the Online Show. We will work with the teachers about how to issue these awards to students who are all currently sequestered due to the Coronavirus. You can view the awards here.
John Houchin, the juror for this show, is a retired art and special education educator who taught locally at both La Cumbre Junior High and Santa Barbara Junior High. A graduate of Washington University School of Fine Arts in St. Louis, he obtained a masters in education at UCSB. Houchin developed a diverse, strategy-based art program at Santa Barbara Junior High that included digital media, photography, graphic design, sculpture, drawing and painting. He established an art gallery at the site that displayed 32 student works each year. Currently a resident of Maine, Houchin enjoys photography, nature walks and travel.
