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Special to the Signal
More than 400 middle and high school students and their parents from 24 Alabama counties, including Lowndes, will participate in the third annual Trojan Art Day at Troy University on Friday, Feb. 19.
Trojan Art Day offers workshops and demonstrations led by students and faculty in the University’s Department of Art and Design.
Trojan Art Day precedes the District II Visual Arts Achievement Program awards ceremony, the conclusion to an art competition sponsored by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
“The Visual Arts Achievement Program creates recognition at a state and local level for student achievement in the visual arts,” said Larry Percy, an associate professor in the Department of Art & Design who coordinates the program for TROY. “Trojan Art Day seeks to greatly broaden the number of students to visit our campus and experience the power and beauty of the visual arts. In addition, we wanted to encourage many of the smaller underserved schools or schools with new art programs to engage with this unique arts opportunity.”
This marks the 10th year that TROY’s Department of Art and Design and the University have hosted the District II competition and the third year for the expanded Trojan Art Day format. Activities will get under way at 9 a.m. and conclude with the VAAP Awards ceremony at 1 p.m., taking place in and around Malone Hall on the Troy Campus.
The VAAP Competition Exhibition will open in Malone Gallery on Monday, Feb. 15, and works will remain on display through Friday, Feb. 19 at 2 p.m.
The inaugural Trojan Art Day, held in 2014, drew 150 students and teachers from District II schools. Last year’s event had more than 260 participants.
District II includes schools from Autauga, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Clay, Coffee, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Dallas, Elmore, Geneva, Henry, Houston, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery, Pike, Russell, Randolph and Tallapoosa Counties.
Trojan Art Day and VAAP are partially funded by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.