THE function space at North Ballarat Football Club was overflowing last week as hundreds of kids, along with their parents and guardians eagerly anticipated the announcement of the 2018 Ballarat Childrens Art Awards.<\/p>\n
Author of Stop Doing That!, Simon Carrol, was this year\u2019s judge and he selected 20 finalists from each year level from a huge field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a real honour to have the chance to see so much beautiful art work at the one time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat stunned me was the level of creativity that was shown, especially by the younger artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously some of the pieces stood out and were of really high quality but I really appreciated the efforts of all of the entrants and their bravery in sharing snippets of their lives with the community of Ballarat.<\/p>\n
Founded by Margie Balazic, the awards are open to all schools in the Ballarat region, with submissions made at Bolton\u2019s Office National.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s theme was \u2018my story\u2019 and the event saw 1400 entries across all year levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach year it grows by about 25 per cent,\u201d said co-organiser Katherine Henderson. \u201cIt\u2019s more and more and more, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the 20 shortlisted artists, three are then selected for first, second and third place.<\/p>\n
Mr Carrol said the enormity of the task was a challenge, but something he enjoyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttempting to sift through 1400 pieces of art across seven categories initially seemed like a pretty daunting task but it was actually really rewarding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One of the by-products of running a year art competition for schools is that the organisers get to see young artists grow and develop over time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something that didn\u2019t escape Ms Henderson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year I found it really kind of moving,\u201d she said. \u201cYou get attachments as you watch them grow. I wish we had photos each year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE function space at North Ballarat Football Club was overflowing last week as hundreds of kids, along with their parents and guardians eagerly anticipated the announcement of the 2018 Ballarat Childrens Art Awards. Author of Stop Doing That!, Simon Carrol, was this year\u2019s judge and he selected 20 finalists from each year level from a […]<\/p>\n