STAMP art show judge for the competition Lisa Krueger, and Anita Derks-Williams from Antigo talk about why the charcoal drawing of her late grandmother was created for her mother.

STAMP art show judge for the competition Lisa Krueger, Antigo Visual Arts Student representative Danna Gabriel and Nat Johnson from Wabeno talk about how difficult it was to combine, pencil, paints, and special paper to create the kanji lettering in her untitled piece.

FOR THE ANTIGO TIMES

Antigo Visual Arts and the Antigo Public Library held the inaugural regional Statewide Teen Art Mentor Program (STAMP) reception Thursday evening at the library for regional high school students. The STAMP art show judge, Lisa Krueger of Oak View Studio, announced eight state awards along with participation awards to more than twenty student artists to a large audience consisting of art teachers and mentors, students, and community members watching in appreciation of each artist’s talents.  Said Krueger, “It was great to see so many attend the reception. I especially enjoyed hearing the artists speaking about their pieces of art and the process the used in creating them. I encourage them to continue developing their artistic skills and continue to create beautiful pieces of art.” Each state awarded artwork will be invited to be hung at the Wisconsin Regional Art Program (WRAP) state exhibit hosted by the Center for the Visual Arts in Wausau, from July 8 through August 27.

The eight state awards were given to Anita Derks-Williams of Antigo, Madison Gruny of Medford, Zoey Janssen of Antigo, Nat Johnson of Wabeno, Megan Kloth of Medford, Payton Noskowiak of Antigo, Aliyah Stroik mentored by Tom’s Drawing board in Rhinelander, and Kendall Tichenor of Crandon.

Bobby Walker, the Association of Wisconsin Artists STAMP North Coordinator had this to say; “Congratulations to the winners of the Statewide Teen Art Mentoring Program, and to Danna Gabriel and the Antigo Visual Arts group who have brought the community together to support the arts.”

Each year juried STAMP Regional exhibitions are held throughout Wisconsin and are sponsored by the Association of Wisconsin Artists. Originally founded in 1936 the WRAP/ STAMP program began as a bold artistic experiment by UW-Madison College of Agriculture to foster cultural growth, independence, and self-improvement in rural Wisconsin artists.