Barton Community College art students will line the walls of the Shafer Art Gallery with their work during the “Barton Student Art Exhibit” juried art show from 6-8 p.m. Friday, April 1. The show runs through April 23.
The reception will include an awards ceremony where cash awards will be given out for each category. The awards were donated by: The Credit Union of America in Great Bend, Karen Shaner, Dr. Rick Abel, Don and Barbara Beahm, The Great Bend Tribune, Eagle Communications, Bob Feldt, Kent Weltmer and Maureen Leahy.
Art instructor Steve Dudek helped organize the awards and said he feels grateful for the generosity of the donors.
“We really want to thank them for helping support the Art Department,” he said.  “It gives our students the feel of a real competition.  It lets them see that they can win awards for their art. The students are very appreciative of this and it’s a big honor for them to get one.”
Shafer Art Gallery Director Dave Barnes said the student exhibit is an important part of encouraging artists.
“Each year we have the opportunity to showcase the work being produced in art classes at Barton Community College, and I do mean work,” he said. “The labor and effort these students have put into the objects displayed in this exhibit is phenomenal, but their labor alone does not make art. The famous polyglot mathematician Michael Polyani in his book ‘Meanings,’ says art making is a social skill, a collaboration between the audience and the artist. If the work is not seen and talked about, the artist is just a fabricator. It is only in conversation and dialogue that things become meaningful or become art. Student work must be seen to be validated as art. This show is our opportunity to enter into the process of validating our student artists’ work and vision and making of it, art with meaning.”
The show will be judged by Head of the Art Department at McPherson College Wayne Conyers. He has his Master of Fine Arts from Fort Hays State University.