Students Receive Honorable Mention

Jasper County High School students Katie Alewine and Antonio Boykin received Honorable Mention at the 12th Annual Protege Competition and Exhibition, which features works by high school juniors and seniors from Central Georgia. The Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences honored students with a reception recently.

In February, Jasper County High School artists submitted their artwork and the following students’ artwork was accepted: Katie Alewine, Tristan Armstrong, Tasha Gerstle and Antonio Boykin.

The competition is open to 26 counties and the Museum only accepted 40 student artists for this year’s exhibit, four of whom are from JCHS.

“It’s an honor to get one student accepted into something like this, but to get four was amazing,” said Mr. Proctor.

The exhibit will be open for public viewing from now until April 26 at the Macon Museum of Arts and Science.

Mr. Proctor said, “This is a tremendous opportunity for our students to get experience in presenting their work to the public, to build a resume for college entry, or to gain the confidence to pursue art as a career.

The Macon Museum of Arts and Science is the only nationally accredited museum in this area. Most artists work half their lives for the opportunity to show their work in this type of venue. Congratulations students and GO Canes!”

This year’s interdisciplinary element requests that students interpret a literary work or character in a two- or three-dimensional piece of artwork. They also were required to prepare a written artist statement for their interpretive project, which is shared as part of the exhibition. Submitted works cover a broad range of media, including drawings, paintings, collage, photos and sculpture.

Protégé 2015 is judged by Macon native Eric O’Dell, also a celebrated artist and Assistant Professor of Art at Mercer University.

During the awards ceremony, Mr. O’Dell said to the students, “I worked at this museum when I first moved to Macon. I have hung Picasso’s artwork on these walls. I have hung Van Gogh’s artwork on these walls. And now I have hung your artwork on these same walls, be proud of your accomplishm