Visual Arts

The Thaden Visual Art Department hosts bi-annual on-campus art exhibitions highlighting student artwork from the trimesters.

Arts Across Arkansas is a program designed to encourage, enhance, and expand high school students’ original thoughts, processes, personal experiences, and artistic abilities. Teachers across the state nominate over 100 students in six artistic mediums, including dance choreography, film, literary arts, music composition, photography, and visual arts.

Student finalists meet with mentor artists (hosted by the Arkansas Arts Council) to discuss their work and creative process. The finalists present their pieces and are honored at an awards ceremony at the Robinson Theater in Little Rock. The event showcases young creatives' talent, mastery, and skill statewide.

The Arkansas Young Artist Association is the largest organization of high school visual arts students in Arkansas and is a state-wide organization for Grades 9-12. Hundreds of students from across the state participated in the competition in numerous categories this year.

artWAYS is the UA Little Rock School of Art and Design’s residential, summer intensive visual arts program for high school students and educators. All sessions are taught in the Windgate Center of Art + Design (WCAD) on UA Little Rock’s campus.

The University of Arkansas School of Art hosts a Summer Arts Workshop for high school students in grades 10-12. Students select their preferred area of interest for the afternoon course sessions taught by School of Art faculty who are also working artists, designers, and scholars.  Throughout the week they will meet with current students, different offices on campus, learning about applying to colleges, scholarship options, and a career in the arts.

Each year, art educators and instructors throughout Arkansas submit their students’ work, and a panel of art professionals selects works to be included in the exhibition. Showcasing artwork from kindergarten through high school in a wide range of mediums and techniques, the 65 chosen works – or five works from each grade level – will be displayed in a virtual exhibition on the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts website.

Each year throughout all regions of the state, members of the Arkansas Art Educators are asked to submit exemplary pieces of artwork created by Kindergarten through high school students in their classrooms. A variety of two-dimensional projects ranging from painting, drawing, printmaking, collage, mixed media and computer generated work are judged.

Over 700 pieces of artwork are submitted for consideration. A single piece of artwork from each grade level is selected from each region to represent that area of the state. Judged by art teachers and professional artists, the quality of work selected represents the breadth of learning taking place in art classrooms throughout the state. It hangs from June-August and is an opportunity for artwork from around the state to be seen by residents of Arkansas and by a wide range of visitors from around the country.

Founded in 1902, Southern Teachers Agency is the oldest teacher-placement service in America. Serving private and independent schools and educators in the South for over a century, The Southern Teachers Agency 2023-2024 Academic Calendar features students’ artwork depicting the schools they attend. Paintings focus on a distinctive, recognizable architectural feature of a campus structure, building, or building.

The Wildlife of Arkansas, Student Art Contest, has encouraged students in grades K-12 to explore and celebrate Arkansas’s wildlife. The online submission process allows students, teachers, and parents to submit a photograph of the artwork online rather than mail the original artwork in to be scored. The online process has many benefits, including expanding to new schools and areas of the state that may not have had the funding to mail the original artwork.

Each spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors a nationwide high school visual art competition to recognize and encourage artistic talent nationwide and in each congressional district. Since the Artistic Discovery competition began in 1982, more than 650,000 high school students have participated.

Students submit entries to their representative’s office, and panels of district artists select the winning entries. Winners are recognized both in their district and at an annual awards ceremony in Washington, DC. The winning works are displayed for one year at the U.S. Capitol.