Blaffer Art Museum at University of Houston awards $1000 and $500 Martha Meier Scholarships to Two High School Students

Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston is proud to announce the Young Artist Apprenticeship Program Exhibition: A Different Perspective, on view from Friday, March 23 – April 6, 2012 at the University of Houston’s Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture Gallery at 122 College of Architecture Bldg. An opening reception will be held Friday, March 23, 2012 from 5:30–7pm, with a ceremony at 6 pm where a $1000 and $500 Martha Meier Scholarship will be awarded to two students.

Participating students mapped their environment, working from observation, memory and imagination to make artworks that reflect their own shifting perspectives. Artworks include photographs, en plein aire paintings; sculptures of oversized everyday objects; and collaborative, memory maps drawn on clear acetate and layered to incorporate maps by multiple students.

The exhibition features works by artist apprentices Hilda Hernandez, Nora Morales, Manuel Reyes-Leon, and Brenda Valenzuela of Stephen F. Austin High School; Tania Escobar, Vickie Lopez, and Abril Ramirez of Cesar E. Chavez High School; Isis Garcia, Emily Hernandez, and Daphne Rawashdeh of Eastwood Academy; and Yuridce Corona, and Miriam Ramos of Charles H. Milby High School.

About the Young Artist Apprenticeship Program:

The Young Artist Apprenticeship Program organized by Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, is a nationally recognized art-making workshop held each spring and fall for teenagers from neighboring Houston Independent School District high schools. Meeting after school, students make art under the supervision of two artist mentors, Nelly Martinez and Blaffer Curator of Education Katherine Veneman. Students build critical thinking and problem-solving skills as well as their creative abilities throughout the course, making drawings, paintings, prints, and multidisciplinary artworks including a group project, a two part sculpture incorporating painting and mixed media. The six week course culminates in a museum exhibition. The museum awards two scholarships provided by the Martha Meier Memorial Scholarship Endowment Fund to exceptional young artists to pursue higher education at a college or university. Additionally, a three week summer version of YAAP was launched in 2011. The 2011-12 Young Artist Apprenticeship Program is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Matt Johns
mgjohns@uh.edu