Several Horton High School art students participated in the Northeastern Kansas Regional Art Invitational and Competition at Highland Community College in Highland Kansas on Thursday, April 17, 2025. Fourteen of the artworks submitted by Horton High School art students earned the school a First Place in competition against other 1A, 2A, and 3A Kansas schools. Over nine hundred artworks were submitted from 45 schools from across the state participated in this event this year. Art Day judges will view several hundred works of art and present Best of Show, Artistic Excellence, and Honorable Mention awards to selected works. The competition offers students the opportunity to publicly display their art and to view the work of their fellow students. The show is a wonderful source of inspiration and ideas for students and educators alike.
Horton High School’s art teacher, Mrs. Krogmann, submitted 30 artworks for the 2025 competition at Highland Community College. This regional invitational provides a means to showcase a selection of the best works created by league high school art students. Young artists' styles covered a wide variety of mediums that included colorful pencil drawings, oil paintings, photography, printmaking, watercolor, pastel paintings, batik, graphite drawings, conte` and charcoal drawings and much more. Submissions for this year's invitational were juried by two regional professional artists.
During the final award session, Sam Perkins, Graphic Design teacher in HCC’s Art Department and one of this year’s judge provided some insight to the young artists as to why art matters so much. Mr. Perkins said that, “Arts is an elemental component for all of us because it serves as an outlet for our emotions, . . . .the creative process is a gift from one soul to another.” Additionally, judges’ criteria focused on quality of work, emotional response, originality in content, the application of technique, and the interpretation and the clarity of the artist’s concept to the viewer.
The following Horton High School art students received the coveted award of “Artistic Excellence” for their various mediums: Rocky Soriano for a digital painting, Brianna Curtright for a tinted graphite drawing and a graphite drawing with gold leaf, Abigail Jenkins in printmaking, La Nell Rermirez in graphite, and Ashlynn Schwed received two awards for two different graphite drawings. The following students who received “Honorable Mention” were Dani White in graphite, Brianna Curtright in cont and graphite, Luke Mathewson in pastel, Julie Lowe in Conte, Chanelle Blacksmith in graphite, Ashlynn Schwed in graphite, and the team Sam Taff and Wyatt Doty in sculpture.
“We are so proud of our students again this year, earning the first-place trophy in competition against other 1A, 2A, and 3A Kansas schools. Horton High School art students worked hard on their submissions, while focusing on improving their technique, experimenting with different mediums, and honing their craftsmanship. Our art students came away even more motivated after experiencing their second “First Place” trophy. Students put forth exceptional work and went the extra mile in completing their submissions and honing their craftmanship,” said Margaret Krogmann, Visual Arts teacher for Horton High School.