Five students from Haines joined more than five dozen high school students from around Southeast who traveled to Wrangell for the annual Artfest.
The students, and their teachers, had four days of painting, inking, printing, beading, knitting, and more – all of which culminated in a public art show on Sunday.
Each workshop runs about three to four hours long and they were led by art teachers from participating schools, plus some guests.
The intent is to expose students to different kinds of art than what they see in their one-teacher communities, said Wrangell School District art teacher Tawney Crowley.
“It’s like having a giant art studio,” Crowley said.
Wrangell’s Sandy Churchill taught a beginning beading workshop, and artist Jaynee Fritzinger led a session on watercolor-ink fish art.
Other workshops cover collages, glass mosaics, neurographic art (meditative art), clay scratch boards, moccasin making, bentwood boxes, landscape block painting, painting found objects and knitting.
The Alaska School Activities Association is paying much of the cost for the event, which was originally scheduled for Haines but had to find a new host city when the local school district started the year with a brand new art teacher.
That new K-12 teacher, Lindsey Finnan, said Haines students Madi Hart and Ezra Nash were acknowledged in a few different workshops.
Hart won an honorable mention in a bentwood box-making workshop, while Nash got Best in Workshop in block printing and clayboard scratch art.
Nash was also awarded the Kirk Garbisch Award, named after the Wrangell art teacher who helped organize the first event in 1997.
The award is “typically presented to a student whose artwork exemplifies exceptional creativity, technical skill and a deep understanding of artistic principals,” Finnan wrote in an email.
Artfest was held in Wrangell this year, in part, due to Finnan being new in her position.She said next year’s Artfest will be hosted in Haines.