Challenges

The art challenges are hands-on competitions that will take place throughout the morning of the event. Students must register for the art challenges in advance so that adequate materials will be available. The number of students allowed per challenge, per school, is limited in order to provide a quality, rewarding experience for everyone.

Art Masterpiece Chalk Mural Challenge: Each school team will have the opportunity to create an image (maximum size 3-foot by 5-foot) of an art history idea with a modern interpretation. Teams will be made up of three to five students. Participants may bring a sketch of the planned mural and art reproductions of the original artwork. Media used will be chalk on brown craft paper. LIMIT: This event will be limited to 3 teams per school. Evaluation criteria: Easily identifiable as an artwork from the past; image is updated to contemporary images, ideas or thought. Duration: Session one and two. 

3-by-3 Throwing Challenge: Participants will have three minutes and 3 pounds of clay to create a wheel piece. Evaluation criteria: Even thickness of clay body, symmetrical profile, interesting shape. (Best of two throwing sessions) Duration: Session one.

Tallest Cylinder Challenge: Participants will have 3 pounds of clay and five minutes to throw a cylinder, the taller the better. Evaluation criteria: Tallest standing cylinder (must be opened as a cylinder). (Best of two throwing sessions) Duration: Session two.

Wire Sculpture Challenge: Participants will create wire sculpture images by bending and shaping wire. The content will be assigned at the beginning of the challenge. Evaluation criteria: Strongly resembles the object depicted; made of one continuous line of wire. Duration: Session one. 

Covered Wire Armature: Participants will create a sculpture form using a wire coat hanger that is covered with nylon material and placed on a wood base. Evaluation criteria: Interesting from 360 degrees; Composition is interesting to look at through the successful use of compositional elements and principles. Duration: Session one 

Altered Cube Illusion: Participants will create the illusion of a carved relief cube by altering a cube form with value and color using paint or drawing materials. Evaluation criteria: Value and/or color are used to create the illusion of a carved relief. Composition is interesting to look at through the successful use of compositional elements and principles. Duration: Session two. 

Ad Layout Computer Challenge: Students will be provided graphics and text to build a layout for an ad using any of the following programs, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Word. Students will be given 55 minutes to construct the ad using the design principles to build visual hierarchy. Evaluation criteria: Size, placement and boldness of text establishes a visual hierarchy. Arrangement of text and graphics demonstrates successful use of compositional elements and principles. Duration: Session one or two. 

Quick Draw Challenge: Participants will draw five gesture drawings from a model in 10 minutes. Using one of these as a reference, the participants will have the rest of the session in which to elaborate upon the image, which might include a setting, details, etc. Participants will have a choice of drawing media. Evaluation criteria: Complete image developed from the initial pose. Composition is interesting to look at through the successful use of compositional elements and principles. Duration: Session two.

Theme Mural Relay: Teams will be given a theme for their mural at the beginning of the competition. Teams will be made up of three to five students. Team members will take turns drawing portions of the composition as directed by card instructions. Media: Colored chalk. Evaluation criteria: Most organized composition; separate parts fit together as a cohesive whole. Duration: Session one or two.

NEW THIS YEAR
Monster Mashup: Participants will work as a team of three to collaborate on three separate drawings of a monster. Without being able to see the other team members’ contributions, each person will draw the head on one paper, the midsection on another, and the legs on a third, for a combined effort of three complete drawings. For reference, click here and scroll down to Mini Exercise #2 – Monster Doodles. The team will select one of the three collaborative drawings for evaluation. Evaluation Criteria: Originality (not a typical response); Craftsmanship (carefully drawn). Duration: Session one.

Presenters

Session One
Lee Shiney – “Art:  Break Every Rule You’ve Ever Learned”
A presentation on topics such as striving for failure, and looking in all the wrong places for solutions. 

Lee Shiney is a full-time painter and kinetic sculptor whose art and "art-making-art" machines are responses to high-art, art accessibility, and personal illness. Homemade turntables, spray devices, and paint dripping machines are some of the hardware used in his alternative painting processes. Recycling and repurposing is an ongoing theme, as is constant experimentation with non-traditional painting surfaces. He was part of the three-person "InterACTIVE" exhibition at the Wichita Art Museum from 2008 through 2010, and divides his time between commission work, shows in the midwest, and artist residencies in schools through Arts Partners. His portfolio and writings about art are found at leeshiney.com. "105 Horizons" is his current ongoing project to experience, document, and paint all 105 counties in Kansas.

Session Two
Michael Kline – "The Creative Mind, How it Works and When it Doesn’t"
Michael Kline lives, breathes, eats and sleeps in the same world you do. What he sees however, is something totally different. Learn how creativity can be both a fickle mistress and a lifesaver (not the candy kind).

An illustrative contributor to Kids Discover magazine for more than 20 years, Kline also lists such companies as Penguin Publishing, Family Fun magazine, Storey Publishing, and Ideals Publishing among those who receive his hand-addressed invoices. He is the author/illustrator of WordPlay Café, a phonetic romp for the knee-high generation, and recently released his first attempt at left-handed imagery in The Doodles of Sam Dibble (Grosset and Dunlap). He crafts his illuminations from his modest and almost-paid-for home in Wichita, Kansas. (dogfoose.com)