On the evening of April 10, students, artists and the community gathered at Salt Lake Community College’s South City Campus for the Student Art Showcase reception and award ceremony in the Grand Theatre.
The showcase is an opportunity for students to submit their art to be displayed in the Center for Arts and Media. Contestants submitted their work from which judges in the art community picked a winner for each category. There was a category for every type of artist to receive recognition, from fine art to animation.
2014 Art Showcase award recipients
Dean’s Award: Douglas Jensen
President’s Award: Jason Koelliker
Best of Show Award: Michelle Hallberg
Awards of Excellence: Kevin Landeen, Terry Jackson-Mitchell, Rachel Beh, Leah Neerings and Trevor Berreth.
Awards of Merit: Jake Gatenby, Maryam Moosavi-Johnson, Ed Browning, Jeffrey Juip, Brian Baity, Jared Christofferson (who received two), Josh Madden, D. Parker McCormick, Jessica Lee and Nichols Socci.
Honorable Mentions: Elliott Jared, Angela Ang (who received two), Ruslan Sultanov, Jill Sullivan, Eileen Johnston, Brooke Steinicke, Sara Belnap, Ariel Norris and Danielle Ainsworth.
“We are here to support the community and the college,” says SLCC alumna Lisa Wright. “I always love seeing what the students produce. I think it brings our community closer together. This is a great event to be had.”
The panel of judges decided to give honorable mentions, in addition to the awards, because they believed that the level of work and talent by SLCC students did not deserve to go unrecognized. In all, there were 10 honorable mentions and 19 “best of…” awards.
“There was almost 500 entries into the show this year,” says event host Lana Gruendell during her opening speech. “The problem is that the space we have will only hold a little over 200 pieces, so we had to jury out a lot of really nice pieces.”
At the award ceremony, Gruendell congratulated everyone who participated, even those who did not make it into the showcase.
“I submitted my artwork to the show but it didn’t make it in, but I still came to the reception to support my classmates who made it in the show,” says student A. Foley. “Even though I didn’t make it in [the showcase], I am glad I tried because this is an amazing thing that we [student artists] can get involved in. It’s a good way to put yourself out there,” says Foley.
The Student Art Showcase pieces will be open to the public for viewing April 11-17 at South City Campus’ east (1-032) and west (1-030) multipurpose rooms. The pieces will be on display Monday-Friday from noon to 6 p.m.
Photos by Jimmie Breedlove
