2009 National High School Metals Exhibition Held by The Fine Arts Center, Greenville, S.C.

Published: January 23, 2009

Images show the work of students at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, S.C., which will host the 2009 National High School Metals Exhibition. Exterior and interior views of cuff by Ashleigh Faith Briley.

Photo by Photos courtesy of the Fine Arts Center.

High school students who take the craft of jewelry making seriously will have a chance to showcase their work and earn awards this February at the 2009 National High School Metals Exhibition, hosted by the Fine Arts Center, a specialized arts high school in Greenville, S.C. This is the third time the school has hosted this event, intending to highlight the metals work of high school students and teachers and to encourage growth in the field.

Any high school students may submit entries to the exhibition, whether they've taken metals classes through their high school, a guild, private lessons, an after-school program, or a continuing education program. Submissions will be judged by metals artists Corey Ackelmire, who teaches enameling and metals at Kent State University, and Nathan Dube, former metals professor at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. The jurors will decide which submissions will be exhibited, and of those, which will win awards. Pieces selected by the jurors will be on display in the Fine Arts Center's Sheffield Wood Gallery from February 20-March 20, 2009.

According to Katy Bergman Cassell, who teaches metals at the Fine Arts Center and is organizing the exhibition, a successful metals piece will show expertise in technique - a sense of good craftsmanship and using the metal to its fullest potential. Also, the piece will have creative spark, though it doesn't necessarily need to be conceptual, and will avoid clichés. Award sponsors include Metalliferous, Thompson Enamel, Rio Grande, Society of North American Goldsmiths, and Lark Books.

by Fine Arts Center student Katie Radke.

The Fine Arts Center is a magnet school; students there attend five days a week in either the morning or afternoon for arts education and attend other schools for their remaining academic work. The center launched their first high school metals exhibition in 2002 and intended to host it every two years. Cassell says that the former metals teacher, Susan Willis, started the event because she wanted her students to have a chance to see first-hand what was happening nationally in the field of metals, because 2-D images found in books or on the Internet just don't do justice to 3-D work. Cassell is continuing that tradition, asking that students submit actual pieces to the exhibition rather than sending photos.

by Fine Arts Center student Liela Scogin.

The exhibit continued in 2004, with 22 high schools participating. In 2006, the event was postponed due to the school's move to its new building, which houses a gallery space that Cassell describes as ideal for hosting the exhibition. The school wants the exhibit to be a regular event that teachers and students plan for. "We feel like we have such a unique position here that we would like to use our position to help the arts nationally at the high school level in some way if we can; so I think this is one way to do it," says Cassell.

by Fine Arts Center student Megan Kastner.

Entries are due Wednesday, February 11, 2009. For a prospectus that has details on submissions and awards, visit www.fineartscenter.net. You can also e-mail Katy Bergman Cassell at kcassell@greenville.k12.sc.us. -Kristin Sutter