ADVOCACY Art by Victoria C. The Visual Art Scholastic Event Mel Basham and Sara Chapman he Texas Art Education Associa-tion (TAEA) created the Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) to recognize exemplary student achievement in the visual arts by providing high-school, middle-school, and elementary student artists from art programs across the state a stan-dard of excellence to which they can achieve. Established in 1994, this program is unique to Texas public, private, and charter schools, with regional events held in all twenty TAEA regions, which correspond to Texas Education Service Centers. High-school and junior-high stu-dents bring their artwork to their regional event where they are inter-viewed by TAEA-certified jurors who evaluate their artwork according to a standards-based rubric. A portion of the evaluation is based on the student interview, while additional scoring is based on the individual artwork. At the elementary level, students are not interviewed, but their artwork is adju-dicated on a similar rubric. On the day of the event, each stu-dent is assigned a time and eight min-utes with a judge. The interview is private, but ESL students are allowed to bring an interpreter. The judge com-pletes a juror’s rating form on each student that is one-third weighted on T the student’s interview and two-thirds weighted on the work of art. The com-ponents on the form are based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) in art for Texas. State Event Goals: • To recognize exemplar igh-school student artwork from across the state. • To recognize qualit igh-school art instruction. • To recognize art instructors for providing students with opportunities. • To inform school administrators of the contributions being made on behalf of their art instructors, and to define a standards-based program. • To reinforce state and national standards in high-school art programs. • To increase TAEA membership at the high-school level. • To encourage students to elect visual art classes at the college level. • To provide a safe venue for a qualit rogram that achieves all of the above goals. The State Event High-school artists are evaluated at the regional level with an opportunity to advance to the state event. In 2019, 34,512 high-school artists participated in 29 regional events representing The Gold Seal Exhibit represents exemplar artwork in concept, technique, creativit , and critical and creative thinking. 389 school districts and 1,646 Texas art educators. A percentage of each division was selected to advance to the state event, where the Gold Seal Awards are selected by a team of jurors in each division. The state event is held annually in April. State qualifying artworks are assessed by jurors from across the United States on Friday. On Saturday, students may participate in hands-on CONTINUED ON PAGE 41. SCHOOLARTS.COM 11
School Arts Magazine December 2019: Page 13
