As you step inside, the hum of lively chatter and crowded hallways fill the space. You walk past the mix of paintings, sculptures and multimedia installations adorning the walls, each telling a story. All of a sudden, you spot your piece on display with an award ribbon attached on the border. A wave of pride and achievement fills your heart as you celebrate the recognition.

Held at Legacy Campus, the annual Douglas County School District (DCSD) Art Exhibition showcased high school and middle school artistic achievements. Jags received second place, third place and honorable mention awards in different art categories.

The open-house art show began Friday, April 19, and ended Thursday, April 25 with viewing hours ranging from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Visual Arts Department Chair Kennetha Miller has been teaching graphic design, photography and ceramics for nine years and helped set up her students’ work in the show.

“This show is an opportunity for our students to show how hard they have worked both semesters. As their teacher, I’m so proud of them and I couldn’t wait to show off their work as well,” Miller said. “I hope that they can treasure the pieces they made and have a fond memory of Rock Canyon and their time with us.”

The show included various art disciplines: sculpture, ceramics and glass, mixed media, jewelry, drawing and painting, computer art and design, photography and printmaking. To help classify the different kinds of artwork, small, circular stickers were placed on each name tag to label the art by the specific high school category for judging.

Lauren Madsen ‘26 got one piece into the art show. Her project was based on mandelas and she decided to paint the sky with different planets. She used different-sized dots of various colors of blue, white, orange and red. It took her around five weeks to complete using only class time to finish it.

“I’ve been taking art since elementary school, but I started liking it more in middle school because it made me feel calm and it was a fun way to spend extra time,” Madsen said. “This is my first time having things in the art show and I felt proud that I was in it because I worked hard on it.”

There was no formal ceremony to congratulate the artists this year as the DCSD Art Show stopped hosting award ceremonies a few years ago. Instead, awards were announced on Tuesday, April 23, with colorful ribbons attached to each piece. Winners received an email and collected a certificate of achievement near the building entrance.

“From each of our classes, we picked out our best student work. We laid it out on a big table and went through the selection process,” Visual Arts teacher Lindsay Hubbard said. “We wanted to get a piece from each of the units that we taught to showcase what we cover in our classes. We always try to highlight the work of upperclassmen because it’s their last chance to get things into the art show.”

All winners received a small goodie bag with sweets and a sticker. However, first-place winners, Best in Show picks and poster contest winners received a goodie bag and a gift card. 

“We make certificates for those winners and the Air Academy gives us money to buy gift cards for x amount of kids,” Curriculum Instruction and Assessment Reporting Leader Laurie Lacomb said. 

Besides first place, second place, third place and honorable mentions, there were two more respective placements awarded: Best in Show and Legacy Picks. Legacy Pick winners get their art featured on Legacy Campus for an entire year, some pieces even earning a permanent position.

Jags had six entries in Graphic Design, seven in Photography, five in Drawing, seven in Painting and 16 in Sculpture.

In Graphic Design, Hana Lee ‘25 won second place and Madie Loucks ‘24 placed third. In Painting, Rylan Hastings ‘24 won second place. Lastly, for sculpture, two honorable mentions were given for Iris Star ‘26 and Rigel Dodge ‘27.

“We have a wonderful art team. Our teachers are amazing and we’re all as passionate about our own art as we are at teaching art to our students,” Miller said. “It’s so great to come to work knowing that you can work with such a great team.”