Thank you very much for joining us for the 10th annual High School Juried Art Show, online and inside the Mann Art Gallery, which is located on Treaty 6 Territory, homeland of the Metis Nation, and also traditional Dakota territory.

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It is our pleasure to celebrate the artistic achievements of the youth artists of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Each year we have a wonderful opportunity to see the skill, talent, and hard work of these artists. It truly is hard work, because it’s the attention to detail, focus, practice, and dedication to realizing their vision, that enables these artists and these works to be successful in seizing and holding our attention.

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This year we are thankful that the High School Juried Art Show can take place in a dual format – both online and in the gallery. Last year the exhibition took place entirely virtually, as the gallery closed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is wonderful to return to the gallery and have the majority of works on the walls as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of this exhibition, while simultaneously showing works online for safe viewing from across the province, and around the world.

The Mann Art Gallery’s first annual School Art Exhibition took place in April & May 2004, including elementary and high school works. This format continued for several years until the first High School Juried Art Exhibition was created by Curator Griffith Aaron Baker and Educator Twyla Exner in spring 2012. Since then, the Mann Art Gallery has displayed 704 artworks by a similar number of students over the past ten years. This 10th anniversary exhibition is the sixth time I have had the honour and pleasure of curating this unique show.

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We are grateful to all of the students and teachers who have submitted artworks. We always have more artworks submitted than we can jury into the show, and making the selection is always difficult. Our selections for inclusion and awards are based on the following criteria:

 

• Demonstrated commitment to the artwork (carried the piece through to the end with consistency at whatever skill level the student is at).

• Innovative use of the material

• Creative use of subject matter (depicted something unexpected).

• Interesting idea(s) or story behind the work

• Aesthetically pleasing use of “design principles”

• Evidence of risk taking (student tried something new when making the work).

• Demonstrated skill (works that display technical proficiency)

 

This year we had over 110 submissions, and are displaying 90 works. Participating students this year are from Carlton Comprehensive Public High School, École St. Mary High School, Prince Albert Collegiate Institute, Wesmor High School, and WP Sandin School. Over the past ten years, we have also had student artwork from Regent Academy, Blessed Marie Rivier, Won-Ska, St. Louis, Birch Hills, Gabriel Dumont Institute, and Prince Albert Youth Residence. We also always have submissions from students who take private art classes from Christina Thoen’s Art School.

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I have seen similar themes emerge over the years - pop culture characters and celebrities, themes of fantasy, horror and the grotesque, hearts and eyes (always full of such emotion), works referencing current events and social issues of particular interest to teenagers, works that are pure flights of fancy and experiments in imagination, favourite subjects like landscapes or animals, works that were made for art class assignments where students are demonstrating their learning, and, always, dynamic portraits.

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It is especially fitting that there are so many portraits this year. Currently, Carol Wylie’s powerful exhibition, They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds, is on display until May 29. A well-known Saskatoon artist specializing in portraiture, she has painted portraits of Jewish Holocaust survivors and Indigenous Residential School survivors. It is fitting to have two walls of student portraits in the Project Space and Education studio to complement the eighteen large-scale portraits in the main gallery.

 

Portraits offer an opportunity to depict an individual – a significant “subject” - and create a relationship between the artist, subject, and viewer. For high school students, at a time of discovering and asserting one’s identity, it is especially meaningful and powerful to be able to represent oneself in the way one chooses. These works all tell a story about the artist who created them, and these portraits can be both revealing and enigmatic. I hope you will have the opportunity to view this exhibition, either in person or online, and discover works that speak to you. I know you will be as impressed with the results of these students’ artistic labours as we are.

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Thank you again to all of the students and teachers who shared their work with us. We hope we have fulfilled our mission in presenting your works in a professional gallery space, to celebrate your accomplishments and allow our community to appreciate your talent and hard work. We hope you always feel welcome here.

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We offer particular thanks to the art teachers who collected works for submission: Lana Lorensen, Krysta Hawrluk, Jennifer Brown, Charlene Roy, Christina Thoen, and unnamed others. We are thankful for all of the teachers, parents and families who foster the interests and talents of these young artists.

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We are sincerely grateful to the award sponsors, many of whom have sponsored these awards for many years: The Prince Albert Council for the Arts, local artist Cheryl Ring, the John V. Hicks Fund at the Mann Art Gallery, On the Avenue Artisan’s Gallery, and the Kyla Art Group. Your continued recognition of excellence in youth art has encouraged and recognized these deserving students.

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Lana Wilson, Gallery Educator