By Max Mitchell
First I would like to say thank you to everyone who made this virtual art fair successful and able to happen! We had five winners who are listed below. The community voted on their favorite piece in each age division and the top two people with the greatest number of votes won (with the exception of PT Community where there was only one winner). Also, they each won a $25 dollar gift card to Target! You are still able to view everyone's work at https://ptinteractartfair.weebly.com!
This was truly a great experience to see it all come into fruition. When I read some of the ideas Mrs. Price, sponsor of the PT Interact Club, listed to help better the community during the pandemic, I knew I had to develop the idea of a virtual art fair. I immediately reached out to her to state my interest and started to think and elaborate on how everything would work. About mid April I began the process of writing the rules, creating each Google form, describing each category and building the website. It went through several drafts and was a work in progress even once the fair began. People were always sharing their feedback to improve the website like adding a slideshow or making this button easier to spot. In less than three weeks, we were already taking submissions! I remember not being able to sleep because I was so nervous to do this. I wasn’t sure if anyone would enter and I would feel embarrassed, but I kept reminding myself that if only one person entered it would be worth it because they got to share their creation! Little did I know that we would have to extend the time frame another week because of all of the entries and positive reception we were receiving! I really enjoyed looking through the submissions and reading the inspiration behind each piece. They were all remarkable and I was blown away by how talented this community is. I sat at my computer looking at each piece in awe that someone could capture something so beautiful. It was a lot of hard work, but I learned a lot over the process. I want to go to college for something like this (i.e. PR,HR, Digital Marketing, Communications etc.) so this was a great opportunity to add on my resume. I had to correspond between the community, advertise the fair, create the website (and a way to receive the entries and votes) with the resources I had and communicate with people to get their input and ideas.
We had over 700 views of the website and close to 70 entries, which when you factor in everything, they are great numbers! I wanted to take this on because I knew the significance of art in humankind. It helps us to express our ideas better and is more impactful than just hearing words. Especially now with Covid 19, social movements and uncertainty it’s important to create something that’s meaningful to yourself or our society. Art reflects feelings during historic times, outlasts it all, unites people, helps to release stress and gives people a sense of achievement, which are all really important in making our world a better place- community by community.
K-Grades 6:
Night View of the City by Aarush Patil
Beautiful Butterfly by Safina Flipse
Grades 7-12:
Don't Touch by Arianna Rahbar
Sea Turtle by Emily Trunk
PT Community
Lord of the Rings Watercolor by Julia Trunzo
