On Thursday, April 14, Huntley High School helped host the annual Fox Valley Conference Art Show held at McHenry County College.

10 local schools within the FVC, including Jacobs, Hampshire, and the newly-added Burlington Central, entered student works into multiple categories. Students could enter both 2D and 3D works like sculptures, paintings, graphic designs, and collages.

This year, Huntley High School was in charge of hosting the event, which according to art teacher Bridget Regan, took about seven months of planning. The process was long and included a lot of steps ranging from deciding on a location to creating the exhibits for the artwork, but when it all came together they felt that they succeeded in running a smooth event.

“It was super organized because [the schools] all met and we all made an agreement at the beginning on how it was all going to unfold,” Regan said. “We had a lot of tweaking to do as a whole school but [it turned out well.]”

Of the 58 Huntley students that entered, senior Sara Gebka won honorable mention for her ceramic teapots named “Tea Party” and won in Best of Show Originality/Creativity for her fish sculpture named “Stop Looking At Me! I’m Fine!” Junior Linden Luangnikone won honorable mention for their acrylic painting named “Chicken Bone,” freshman Aileen Quach won Best of Show 3D Media Skills and Technique for her mug called “Bloodhail- Have a Nice Life,” and senior Lizzie Ingrassia won in Logo Design. 

“It made me feel proud [to win honorable mention] because although I’m not really doing art for the prizes and awards, I’m glad that it got a little recognition,” Luangnikone said.

For Ingrassia, her win in Logo Design meant that her logo was used on all certificates, ribbons, and promotional materials like stickers. Because of this, she and over 60 other entries were evaluated and judged in January so that the design could be printed and placed on the awards. Out of the entries, Ingrassia’s origami-style fox won the favor of the judges.

“I wanted to do something that is art related, but not something cheesy like a paintbrush or palette,” Ingrassia said.

Because Huntley was in charge of hosting, a lot of help was needed to set up all of the galleries. Space had to be available to each school for their art pieces, display cases had to be cleaned, shelves needed to be placed, and the artwork had to be put on the walls. Due to this, art students were given the option to take a field trip to MCC to help with the setup.

“As the host school we wanted to provide workhorses. So all the schools come in and they set up their own gallery spaces, but the host school has to oversee [everything],” Regan said. “So the kids were kind of all over the place helping not only our end of it, but their own end.”

The show also allowed students to view pieces from classmates, see works from other schools, and display their abilities.

“I felt excited to have my pieces put in the show,” junior Joy Morgan said. “I was glad to be a part of the show as well as the setup and was happy to see everyone else’s wonderful art.”