Noah Johnson Daily Press An art student at Bay College explains her work to family and friends during the 2024 art exhibition.

ESCANABA — Art students at Bay College met for the Celebration of Student Success, an exhibition showcasing works completed during the 2024 Fall semester.

“Today is to celebrate the student’s success over the semester and give awards from honorable mentions to purchase prize awards for each course. Each student puts in at least one work, and then it is put up to, then juried for awards,” said Bay College Art Faculty and Fine Arts Coordinator Kristine Granger Thursday.

The various artworks include drawings, sculptures and videos created through five different art courses.

The first-place winners from each course were purchased by the college and will join Bay College’s Permanent Art Collection, as well as receive a monetary award.

First-place winners include Meneo Aird (digital cinema 1), Vince Doyen (digital cinema 2), Viktoriia Bezghin (drawing 1), Hannah Mleko (drawing 2), Autumn Hull (intro to art design), and Ashleigh Davis (intro to art design).

There were also multiple honorable mentions, second-place winners, and third-place winners throughout the categories.

Students were asked to submit at least one work, and some students submitted multiple works. Granger said there were approximately 40 pieces of work to choose from, which was not an easy task.

“It’s extremely difficult because not only is it based on the work that you see before you, but it’s also the student’s progress through the semester and how they pushed themselves and were able to overcome things as well as maintaining a high quality of work,” she said.

The winners each spoke to the audience, explaining their work and what inspired them to create it.

After the awards ceremony, guests and artists were invited to enjoy a reception with food and drinks.

If you missed the show, don’t fret. The exhibition will remain in the Besse Art Gallery until January 2025 and is free and open to the public.

“I’m just incredibly proud of the work that the students did over the semester and how they push themselves to produce some very high-quality work,” Granger said.