SUMA hosts Cedar Breaks Youth Art reception
The Southern Utah Museum of Art held a closing reception for the Cedar Breaks Youth Art contest on Sept 21 at 6 p.m. The contest contained art created by children in eight schools across southern Utah. Winners for each grade level from third to eighth grade were announced, as well as the grand prize winner.
“The purpose of this project was to interact with the children and help them see the beauty of Cedar Breaks,” said Adam Petersen, facilities manager at Cedar Breaks. “Another part of it is that we have a new visitor center that is being built, and part of that will feature the artwork.” 
The contest has been over a year in the making. Teachers from participating schools attended a workshop with ArtsFUSION in March of 2022, where they learned printmaking techniques that they then taught their students. Cedar Breaks staff members judged the competition.
“It was actually a lot of fun to judge,” said Petersen. “We were able to go through and look at a lot of different prints that were accomplished and have a lot of people involved in them.”
Six overall winners were announced at the reception. The sixth grade winner, Adah A., and the eighth grade winner, Rossteh L., are students at Minersville School. Korbin L. from Iron Springs Elementary won for third grade, while Annalyn B. from Bryce Valley Elementary and Remington L. from Enoch Elementary were the fourth and fifth grade winners.
The grand prize was awarded to Arlee M., a fifth grade student from Enoch Elementary.
All of the winning pieces of artwork will be featured at the new visitor contact center, which is set to open August 22, 2024. The grand prize artwork will be used in a commemorative stamp for Cedar Breaks’ 91st anniversary.
All of the art submissions can be viewed at SUMA until Sept. 25.
The contest was made possible by the Zion Forever Project, ArtsFUSION and SUMA. For more information regarding Cedar Breaks and SUMA, visit Southern Utah Museum of Art and Cedar Breaks National Monument.
Author: Gracie Butterfield
Photographer: Chloe Copeland
Editor: Tessa Cheshire
accent@suunews.net
