VCS launches high school art competition

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A selection of a poster by Jack Yuen, Martha's Vineyard Regional High School student. — Vineyard Conservation Society

The Vineyard Conservation Society invites high school students to enter The Art of Conservation, an art competition focused on Island conservation.

“VCS celebrates its 50th year in 2015,” VCS executive director Brendan O’Neill said in a message posted on the VCS website. “As we gear up to celebrate five decades of conservation work on the Island, we are inviting high school artists this year to submit works that evoke their most treasured places, plants, animals or institutions on the Vineyard. We want them to consider what would happen if those features of the Island weren’t there anymore or were drastically changed.”

VCS representatives are visiting art classes at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and the Charter School to introduce the competition to students.

MVRHS Art Department chairman Chris Baer, who is working with fellow teachers Tiffiney Shoquist and Brendan Coogan said, “We are really enthusiastic about the competition. It’s a great opportunity for the students to use art to express a concept or a message, in this case what they value most about their Island.”

Entries will be judged by Chris Morse, co-owner of several Island galleries including The Granary Gallery in West Tisbury, and Island painter and 2003 MVRHS graduate Dan VanLandingham.

Entry categories for the competition are painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography. Entries must be submitted by May 1, with winners to be announced in early May. Prizes will be awarded and selected entries will be exhibited at the Vineyard Film Center in Vineyard Haven for two weeks in early May. A reception and prize ceremony is scheduled for May 10 at the Film Center.

Further information is available at vineyardconservation.org. Or call Brendan O’Neill at 508-693-9588, or Joan Malkin at 646-894-0656.