Art Connects Virtual Arts Competition receives nearly 500 TK-8 artwork submissions

RIVERSIDE – Teacher Geoffrey Tucker said he doesn’t believe the myth that all great artists are simply talented from birth, and as a former math educator who now teaches art at Ysmael Villegas Middle School in the Alvord Unified School District, he reminds his students that artistic ability is no different than being good at writing, playing basketball or mastering multiplication tables.

“It takes work to get better at anything you do,” Tucker said. “Practicing over and over to get better at something is how artists become great.”

Several students in Tucker’s middle school art classroom who have been practicing their craft, are among the 138 students who were honored for their artistic submissions in the visual arts category of the 2024 Riverside County Art Connects Virtual Arts Competition.

A total of 489 submissions were received from students in grades TK-8 from 67 schools and 18 districts in Riverside County.

Students whose artwork earned first, second or third place honors will receive a plaque and their work is currently on display on the Art Connects at http://www.rcoe.us/art-connects. Certificates will recognize multiple honorable mention submissions.

The submission window for other Art Connects entry categories for the Art Connects competitions will open in the coming weeks and months. Dance submissions open Monday, Feb. 12; Theater submissions open Monday, March 11, and film submissions open Monday, April 8. All submission windows open on the first day at 8 a.m. and close on the final day at 5 p.m. Final dates are still to be determined so applicants must check the Art Connects web page for more information.

Come inside the classroom of a middle school art teacher.

On Mondays and Wednesdays in Tucker’s classroom in Riverside, students can be found working on art projects like masks of ancient gods, illustrating “Aesop’s Fables” or depicting what the spinning wheel of characters and scenes spits out for students to draw that week.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Tucker’s advanced students participate in the “Drawing of the Week,” where they follow his lead as he draws something on the big screen in the room and students follow along.

Tucker started out as a math teacher, but he took art courses in college because he wanted to be an art teacher someday, he said.

“When I was a student at California State University San Bernardino, I would take back-to-back math classes for hours and then wind down my day with the zen of a ceramics or painting class,” Tucker said.

Eighth grade student Isabella Ortega is one of several students from Tucker’s class who also sees the value of art as an outlet and a tool for creative expression.

“Art helps me wind down from the stress of tests, assignments and projects. It is a way to get past all of that, and it helps me express all my emotions,” Ortega said. “Art also helps me with projects in other classes that require drawing techniques.”

Ortega said she has loved art since she was young, even though Tucker’s classes are her first official art classes. Her favorite mediums are air-dry clay and stop-motion filmmaking.

One of Ortega’s teachers asked if she could keep a recent shield project and eventually hung the work in her classroom.

“It’s nice to hear my teachers ask if they can keep the art I turn in for an assignment on their walls,” she said. “It makes me happy to see it every time I go into their rooms.”

Ortega was previously recognized for multiple award-winning submissions in the 2023 Riverside County Office of Education Dia de los Muertos Art Competition, including a piece that Tucker purchased to hang in his own home.

For the 2024 Art Connects competition, Ortega was one of 138 students who were honored for their submissions in the visual arts category of the competition, including four award winners from Tucker’s class.

Ortega received a third place award for her piece “Masters,” a multi-canvas acrylic paint depiction of four art masters who inspired her: Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo Da Vinci. She also received an honorable mention for her pottery/sculpture entry, “Angel.”

Back in the classroom, Tucker works with new and experienced artists every day, meeting them where they are and introducing them to the elements of art and principles of design to help them learn how to formulate their own critiques.

“With my advanced students, I’m not really teaching as much as I’m just trying to get out of their way,” Tucker said. “They just need a place to try things out.”

Tucker recognized that some students step into his classroom thinking art class will be “easy and chill,” but they soon find out they’ll be doing a lot more than coloring all day.

“We work hard in this class. Students learn how to take feedback, to critique themselves and to learn how art can actually be objectively good and not just look cool,” he said.

At the end of each class project, one of the questions that Tucker requires his students to ask of themselves is: “If I was to do this project again, what would I do differently?”

Ortega seized on that self-reflection question and said she applies it to her life outside of Tucker’s classroom often.

“I never looked at art that way before, and, now that I do, I can ask that question of anything that I put out there for other people to see – even outside of my art,” Ortega said. “Mr. Tucker is very encouraging. He reminds us to trust the process, and to keep going with our projects – even when we are feeling like it isn’t coming out very well.

“Art is very motivational. It teaches you to follow through on things and to continue with something even when it’s hard,” she said.

Art Connects is a virtual student arts competition aimed at showcasing the artistic abilities of Riverside County’s elementary and middle school-aged students in five different age divisions and four different categories.

The competition is open to all students in grades TK-8 attending public, charter, private, parochial or home school programs in Riverside County. For each of the four categories, elementary and middle school students can submit their contributions via links on the Art Connects web page at http://www.rcoe.us/art-connects.

Submissions can be made by parents/guardians or by teachers via the Google Form on the Riverside County Office of Education Art Connects web page once the submission windows open for each category. Limits are up to five entries per student and 10 entries per teacher.

During the first weeks and months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the initial Art Connects virtual competition organized by the Riverside County Office of Education helped students channel their creative energy – leading to more than 1,300 original submissions.

For additional information on Art Connects or additional arts programs and resources in Riverside County schools, contact Louisa Higgins, arts administrator at Riverside County Office of Education, at lhiggins@rcoe.us.

Submitted by Riverside County Office of Education.