Overview

Visual Arts Classic is a competition for high school Art students (grades 9-12).

With about a dozen studio categories and a yearly theme, this friendly, non-threatening competition is a lot of fun!

Students create pieces by responding to a prompt as a “Long-Term” project. They’re also given the challenge to create artwork in response to another prompt as an “On-Site.”

Students conduct research on selected artists whose work and lives relate to the year’s theme. This research serves students in the team events: Art History Quiz Bowl and Critical Thinking. Students earn scores both individually and as a team and all first places advance from Regional to State competition.

Categories include:

• Drawing
• Painting
• Ceramics
• Personal Adornment
• Fiber Arts
• Art History
• Sculpture
• Traditional Photography
• Video
• Printmaking
• Digital Photography
• Graphic Design

with Long-Term and On-site competitions in each category.

Students

• Work independently and cooperatively as a team
• Conduct research 
• Find exemplars in art history to model and learn from
• Work out ideas & solutions in written and visual forms
• Critique knowledgably and accept constructive criticism
• Take charge of their own learning
• Develop their abilities in various 
• mediums and techniques
• Manage time, stay on task, & work 
• within deadlines
• Search for new answers
• Take risks in solving problems
• Evaluate and talk about their artwork
• And more...

Each year’s competition centers around a theme. 

Some past themes include:

• Art and the Environment
• Art and Food
• Art and Humor
• Art and Mythology
• Art and Science
• Art and Storytelling
• Art in Wisconsin
• Art and Science Fiction

Regional locations available to teams:

• Stevens Point
• Whitewater
• Mauston
• La Crosse
• Stout
• Northland
• Milwaukee
• Platteville