Winning young artists named

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Judging for the Alberta Indian Arts and Crafts Society's Children's art contest took place in Edmonton October 29.

The purpose of the contest was to "encourage Native children to get involved in the art scene and possibly to find potential upcoming artists," said Val Kaufman, program officer for the contest.

Preparations for the contest began in September when the AIACS office contacted a number of schools in the province to have their children submit works. With the deadline on October 24, the kids had about two months to work on a piece to submit to the AIACS office for competition in the first-of-its-kind contest, provincially.

With entries from 23 different schools in Alberta and a total of 517 entries, judging was not easy, say Jane Ash Poitras, who, along with Roy J. Salopree, judged the entries. Decisions for winners in each grade took three hours of deliberations. The contest was open to Grades Kindergarten to Grade 6.

"We were overwhelmed. We didn't expect this amount of entries to come in from all parts of the province," said Kaufman. "We've certainly had a good response and maybe next time the contest will involve different grade levels."

Of the many entries, the following were chosen winners: Kindergarten - Cathie Anderson, Atikameg; Grade 1 - Pernell Wesley & Vernon Labelle, Morley; Grade 2 - Dale Janvier, Janvier; Grade 3 - Richie Giroux, Kinuso; Grade 4 - Trudy Olds, Gleichen; Grade 5 - Sarah Sloane, Kinuso; Grad 6 - Peter Meneen, Fort Vermilion.

The winners in each grade category will receive art supplies and a first place ribbon. Participation ribbons will be given to those artists whose work will be on display.

The winning pieces will be displayed at the National Show and Sale of Canadian Native Arts and Crafts on November 7 to 9 at the Edmonton Convention Centre. Exhibits at the show and sale will feature the finest in Canadian Native arts and crafts.

Although there will be no formal presentation to the children for the winning pieces "we hope the teachers will make the presentations of the prizes and ribbons to the students in their respective schools," said Kaufman.

"There are so many entries submitted, I would've liked to see them all displayed," said Poitras. Poitras was surprised to see that the kids explored every medium including collages, paintings, water colors, pencil drawings and woodcuts, and they came in many different sizes.

Children's art is special. To be able to keep that free spirit as a child, says Poitras, is very important. "It was a real learning experience for me to be a judge for the contest," said Poitras, and as far as she was concerned' "they were all winners."