UHS Art Show

Every year here at Urbana High School, the Art Department holds a student art show where UHS’s art students can show their work to our community. This year, it was held the week of May 2.
This show is held in the library, thanks to librarian Matthew Murray. He said, “It’s one of my favorite parts of the year.” Murray has always enjoyed seeing the students’ work and is very happy about it now being hosted in his library. About three or four years ago, it was moved in the library from the art rooms, so it is more available to view at any time of the day. Murray put in a grant for display boards a couple years ago, which are now used in the art show every year. UHS Art Teacher on leave, Sarah Cardiff said “That has made the show open to people for more time each day, and that is a big advantage.”
Cardiff has been in the Urbana School District for over 20 years, and the show has been a tradition for longer than that. She said “I remember when I was a new teacher at Urbana Middle School bringing my students over to see the show.”
After coming to the high school to be the art teacher here, she’s been excited every year to see her students’ work on display for everyone to see. She said her favorite thing that happens is, “when a student thinks that I, as her/his teacher, have to tell them I ‘like’ a particular art piece–then the piece does great in the show and gets many compliments from viewers and maybe even an offer to buy the piece.” She says the art show is an amazing way for a student to break out of their shell because they always become more confident about their work after everyone loves it. She said, “The student realizes that they made something amazing–it just may take awhile for them to really SEE their work through all their struggles with the piece, and that their art teacher doesn’t lie to them!”
UHS is a very talented school. Senior Mandy Facer is submitting pieces to the show, and she agrees that there is a lot of talent here. She said, “I hope that the other students realize that they don’t have to be in art for a long time to achieve a level that other students will appreciate.”
Senior, Rocio Chavez said, “I think art is a way of how people’s mind wonder and create their own world.”
Freshman, Ficara Akins said, “I hope to gain the knowledge of expressing myself in many different ways [from seeing the show].” She wanted the inspiration of all the different media.
When one walks into the library, they’ll be able to clearly see what all the talk is about. Come see your fellow students’ talent and passion for art in the Library. There’s nothing left to do but enjoy UHS’s talent.