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30th annual Ernie Pope Art Show to begin May 17th

05/13/2021

The 30th annual Ernie Pope Art Show will be displayed in the windows of our Main Street businesses and online in the School District of Fort Atkinson’s k-12 Art Website, 1fortart.com. The exhibition will be viewable from May 17th – June 1st with a closing reception at Barrie Park.  Parents, faculty, FCCU & AC Business Media associates, community members and friends are all invited to walk our lovely downtown, view student artworks, and celebrate the creativity and hard work of our student artists.  

Opening the afternoon of Monday, May 17th, School District of Fort Atkinson schools and St. Joseph’s Catholic School will each be represented by 15 student works. Proudly sponsored by Fort Community Credit Union, AC Business Media, and NASCO with awards secured through a fund donated to the Fort Community Foundation in memory of Ernie Pope, as well as an award sponsored by Robert Farrell in honor of his mother June. This art exhibit is a means of recognizing outstanding student creativity in artwork from our local schools.

The certificates and monetary awards will be presented to winners at our closing reception at 5:30pm on June 1st at Barrie Park.  There will be six award categories as juried by four local judges: the Ernie Pope Award, the Gold Award, the Silver Award, the Bronze Award, the June Farrell award and Purchase Awards. Additionally, we will be having a popular choice vote this year.  Please take a moment to vote for your favorite piece using the QR codes hanging in the windows of our downtown galleries.

The Cygnus Ernie Pope Scholastic Art Awards began 30 years ago.  Ernie Pope, who worked for Johnson Hill Press, was a strong supporter of the arts.  Ernie believed that Fort Atkinson students had significant artistic talent and he wanted to encourage it.  He approached the art teachers at the time and proposed the scholastic art awards. Sadly, Ernie Pope succumbed to cancer, but the show has continued. The awards have recently been granted by a fund set aside in Ernie’s name through the Fort Community Foundation.

Community members, parents, faculty, FCCU & AC Business Media associates, and friends are all invited to experience the downtown art display and view the works at 1fortart.com in support and celebration of our amazing student artists’ creativity and hard work. To view the art in-person, see a list of participating business hosts at fortchamber.com.

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