MEMBER EVENT: Youth Art Month (runs thru March)

Youth Art Month is observed nationally each March to emphasize the value of art education for children and to encourage public support for quality school art programs. It is hosted each year in Huntsville by The Huntsville Museum of Art’s Museum Academy. Youth Art Month also provides a forum for recognizing skills developed through visual arts experiences that are not possible in other curriculum subjects. Youth Art Month is endorsed by The National Art Education Association, Alabama Art Education Association, Alabama State Department of Education, Alabama Arts Alliance and locally the Huntsville-Madison County Art Education Association.

This year marks the 37^th annual Youth Art Month (YAM) exhibition of student artwork on view at the Huntsville Museum of Art in the Adtran, Jurenko, Thurber, and Guild Galleries. This exhibition showcases nearly 200 exuberant works of art by youth in kindergarten through grade 12 from Huntsville City, Madison City, Madison County, Athens City, Limestone County, Decatur City, and Scottsboro City schools.

The Congressional Art Competition (on view February 25 – March 31) and VAA: Visual Arts Achievement Program District V Blue Ribbon Finalists (VAA on view February 25) exhibitions complement the student artwork this year. The VAA District V award-winning works will then subsequently travel to Montgomery to be displayed at the Alabama State Council on the Arts, along with other regional winners from across the state. The artwork by the winner of the Congressional Art Competition (CAC), selected from high school students in the 5th Congressional District will later travel to Washington, D.C. for a yearlong display at the U.S. Capitol.

We celebrate the talents of North Alabama’s young artists at the Huntsville Museum of Art with an exhibition opening on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. Admission fees will be waived to all visitors that day as part of the Community FREE Day program. Award presentations for VAA Blue Ribbon Finalists and the Congressional Art Competition will be held in the Great Hall. Artists’ demonstrations will occur from 1:00-3:00 p.m. to expose visitors to a variety of different art techniques as artists work in their selected mediums in the galleries.