The Visual Arts Classic (VAC) is a competition for art students in grades 9-12. This competition has different art categories like painting, sculptures, drawing, personal adornment, and more. A student will choose what category they want to participate in and then create a long-term project that follows the prompt that goes along with the category. Students can work on their long-term projects until the day of the competition. At the competition, students create another project in the same category but with a different prompt and a two-and-a-half-hour time limit. After that, teams from each school will participate in a quiz bowl and then make a banner representing their school. After all of that, students will receive critiques about their art projects and get their scores for the projects. If students score 18-20 points on a project, they move on to state and receive a first-place award. If they get 15-17, they receive a 2nd place award. If they get 14 or below, they get a 3rd-place award.
This year, six students from Potosi participated in the VAC at Platteville High School: Kaitlyn Horner, Laura Bartels, Tessa Seippel, Ava White, Courtney Jepperson, and Serena Vosberg. Five of them received a first-place award on at least one of their projects, meaning they were moving on to state.
On March 24, 2024, the team traveled to UW-Madison to take part in the state competition. Horner and White moved on to state for their short-term and long-term projects for personal adornment. At UW, they were given two and a half hours to work on another short-term project with a different prompt. Their prompt this time was to create a piece of jewelry that went along with their long-term project. Horner created a bracelet that connected to a crocheted ring, and White created a scarf, also from crochet.
Seippel and Vosberg received first-place awards also for their short-term and long-term projects for drawing. At UW, they each had to create a drawing of a letter that represented an art technique.
Bartels received a first-place award for her long-term project, so at UW, she was graded for that project. The other long-term projects and short-term projects were also graded.
Once everyone was done making their new short-term projects and everything was graded by the judges, teams got their score sheets and were able to go back to their schools. Horner received a first place award for her short-term project. Bartels also received a first-place award for her long-term project. White got a first place award for her long-term project and a second place award for her short-term project. Vosberg received a third place award for her short-term project. Seippel received a second place award for her short-term project.
The team’s coach, Potosi art teacher Rahni Haverland, said this experience was very fun for her and the entire team. She added that this competition was not stressful, but busy, as it created a lot of work for her to make sure the team did everything that was needed. Next year, she hopes for a full team of twelve people instead of only six.