Award winners from the 34th Annual Juried Student Exhibition returned to the University of Wyoming Art Museum to talk about their work.

A small group of art admirers worked its way around the museum’s main gallery Monday night. The group moved from piece to piece and listened to comments made by the respective artists whose works are on display.

“The purpose is to give students a brief opportunity to talk about their pieces,” Wendy Bredehoft, curator of education for the museum, said. “They get to provide their own artist’s statement about their work.”

From 214 entries submitted by 88 students, 63 pieces are displayed in the exhibition. Work that was not selected for the exhibition is displayed in the ASUW Gallery in the basement of the Wyoming Union and in the UP Gallery in the Fine Arts Building as part of the Salon des Refuses.

“The exhibition represents work from not only art majors, but from students in all kinds of fields who also create art,” Bredehoft said. “It provides an opportunity for students to exhibit their work in a museum setting, through a juried process that is very competitive. Work has to be very professionally presented to even be submitted.”

“This is the work that is sort of the crème de la crème of artwork at the University of Wyoming,” Bredehoft said.

Returning to the exhibition for her second time, and winning her second Jacque Buchanan Graphic Arts Award was junior Hannah Benigno. For her entry, Benigno worked with junior Steven Neuberger and senior Katherine Kerber to conceptualize a business called “The Spill Brewery.”

“We had the choice of inventing a bakery or a brewery and to design all of the materials necessary to get it going,” Kerber said. “For ‘The Spill,’ we were assigned to design beer glasses, a six-pack container, bottles, letterhead, business cards, envelopes and any other items that we thought would fit with the design.”

“From the beginning, we envisioned the brewery to be a place where people could go to hang out and enjoy each other’s conversation,” Benigno said. “The idea of conversation and the emotions that go with it was the concept for the entire Spill Brewery.”

“The experience of creating the piece was a good one,” Neuberger said. “In the end, the compilation of all our thoughts and effort came together well, and I can say that we were all very pleased with the outcome.”

First-time participant and winner Amy Jurekovic, a junior art major, was one of the artists who returned for the winner’s walkthrough of the exhibition. Jurekovic’s acrylic piece, titled “Woman with the Pearl Earring,” won four awards including the President’s Office Purchase Award and a $500 First Interstate Honors Award.

“This whole experience has been really amazing and somewhat surreal,” Jurekovic said. “I tried to get into the juried student exhibition last year, but didn’t make it in, so to get in this year and receive awards is truly awesome.”

The only requirement to submit work to the juried exhibition is to be enrolled at the University of Wyoming, which gives all students the opportunity to participate.

“That’s something that’s also really cool about this show; you don’t have to be an art major,” Jurekovic said. “If you just love making art in your spare time, but are studying to be a pharmacist, you can still show off your skills.”

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