Trinity Academy student wins live ‘art battle’

Ten art students from area high schools competed in an “art battle” at Mark Arts on Friday morning, in the hopes of winning a $500 scholarship for their work.

Grace Shively, a junior at Wichita’s Trinity Academy, won the grand prize with a painting of coneflowers against a blue sky. Her competition in the final round, Wichita Southeast High’s Susan Lam, took home $300 as a consolation prize.

The competition consisted of two 20-minute rounds in which five painters at a time painted pieces. One was voted the winner of each round.

Shively said she plans to use the $500 to help with a mission trip to Nicaragua she has planned for spring break.

Mark Arts will host its second annual “Versus: A Live Art Battle” event Friday evening – a similar concept. This year, organizers added a high school competition Friday morning.

The works produced were to be auctioned off at the event Friday night, though one piece – a work by Hutchinson High School’s Julia Hardenburger – was purchased outright Friday morning for $1,000. Liz Koch was the buyer.

The proceeds from that sale go back to Mark Arts, but, regardless, Hardenburger said she was thrilled that her artwork sold.

Debra Ringler, Hardenburger’s 3-D art teacher at Hutchinson, said the competition teaches art students a valuable lesson.

“We all have to compete as artists, and I think it’s important to teach them that,” Ringler said. “We compete with ourselves; we compete with putting it out there for people to purchase.”

Every student painter in attendance got a $100 scholarship for participating.

Competing students were Kate Hale (Andover Central High School), Emily Cass (Bishop Carroll Catholic High School), Rose Palmer (The Independent School), Grace Shively (Trinity Academy), Mitchel Dameron (Wichita Northwest High School), Libby Richey (Augusta High School), Julia Hardenburger (Hutchinson High School), Emily Le (Kapaun Mount Carmel Catholic High School), Jane Chen (Wichita Collegiate High School), and Susan Lam (Wichita Southeast High School).

This story was originally published September 23, 2016 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Trinity Academy student wins live ‘art battle’."