The Carmel Art Association has long been known for its deep roster of mid-career artists, but this weekend kids take over the spot, gaining entry through the annual For the Love of Art competition and exhibition.
CAA started it back in 1947 as a statewide high school art competition, then judged by figures like Salvador Dali, Maxine Albro and Armin Hansen. Citing the lack of attention and resources in the visual arts compared to, say, sports or even music, CAA recently formed a committee and revived it in 2013, and plans to continue it in perpetuity.
Artist and CAA member Pamela Takigawa chairs that committee. “It’s an opportunity to help train [young artists] and teach them how to enter a show in a gallery,” she says.
The students sign a commitment, meet deadlines, make the work, get it ready for display, price their pieces, write an artist bio and statement, then allow their work to be judged.
“That’s what you do to enter a show in a professional gallery,” Takigawa says.
It’s real-world stuff kids can carry into college, art studies or elsewhere.
CAA invited every high school in the county to participate. Students from Soledad High, Stevenson School, Millennium Charter, Seaside High, Salinas High, Trinity Christian School, 18 schools in all, have stepped forth. Each school is allotted space for five student works.
The students were given the same 14 x 14 panels to work on so there is more of a level playing field. The competition will be judged by artist Susan Manchester, designer and photographer Jerry Takigawa, and curator/art consultant Charlotte Eyerman, who will together award gift certificates for art supplies.
The intangible reward, maybe the more lasting one, will be participating in an art show, sharing one’s work, talking with admirers at an opening reception, and maybe even selling their art. The artists get 80 percent of the cut, significantly more than normal. “We don’t want to gouge them,” Pamela Takigawa laughs.
The opening reception on Saturday coincides with the opening of Justin Ward’s limited-edition etchings of Carmel and a retrospective of artist and dancer Mary Burr. Pamela Takigawa says that last year they had kids attend the opening who had never been inside a gallery or museum before. That alone promises to spark the kind of energy, joy and excitement that even veteran artists might be hard pressed to re-create.
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