High School Art Exhibition Opening At New Museum Los Gatos

Press release from NUMU:

March 13, 2023

ArtNow is an annual juried art exhibition and educational program, featuring art from 83 emerging young artists from across Santa Clara County, presented by New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU). ArtNow 2023: Unarmed Truth, our 12th annual ArtNow exhibition, will be on view at New Museum Los Gatos Friday, March 31 through Sunday, June 25, and will include opportunities for select students to win up to $16,000 in scholarships and awards.

This year’s ArtNow exhibition received 800 submissions from talented high school artists from 37 high schools across Santa Clara County, the most students to ever submit to the program. ArtNow 2023 will feature work from 83 students from 23 different high schools, in various mediums ranging from drawing to animation.

ArtNow is an annual juried Santa Clara County high school art exhibition and educational program, presented by NUMU. The ArtNow exhibition and supporting programs offer opportunities for high school student artists, from Palo Alto to Gilroy, to gain real-world experience in participating in a juried museum exhibition. $16,000 in scholarships and awards are given to select participating students. Students have the opportunity to win awards in 8 artistic categories, as well as an overall Best in Show prize and a People’s Choice award.

The categories are painting, drawing, mixed media, printmaking, sculpture, photography, digital art & video/animation.

“As a teacher who has participated in the ArtNow exhibition since its inception, I can attest to years of students who have grown immensely from having made work for the exhibition… The confidence, perspective, and encouragement that students derive from this experience is transformational… I have witnessed the momentum that this experience provides…it ripples through my classes year after year,” said Matthew Reynolds, Lynbrook High School teacher.

ABOUT UNARMED TRUTH

Each year, a new theme is chosen for the exhibition and students are asked to submit works based on that theme. This year, we invite Santa Clara County high school students to create an original work of art that reveals a personal or universal truth, the Unarmed Truth. Students found inspiration from leaders and social movements that have helped us understand, embody, or uphold a hidden truth as a community and reflected on their own experiences.

This year’s theme was co-created with the ArtNow Teen Council, composed of 6 high school interns. This was an exciting step forward in elevating the program to be more widely accessible and relevant to teenagers living across Santa Clara County. Through this meaningful partnership with student artists, teens are not just the recipients of the ArtNow program but its architects.

To learn more visit numulosgatos.org/artnow.

This press release was produced by NUMU. The views expressed here are the author's own.