Mild, shadow & soul: Photographers to indicate off their stuff at Jan. 22 exhibit

BROOKINGS — The name for artwork has ended. Now it’s time to exhibit entries to the general public later this week — and, a bit later, an opportunity to make a clay gnome, too!

A free opening reception for the general public will likely be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 22 on the Brookings Arts Council, 524 Fourth St. At about 6:15 p.m., juror Kelcey Schroder, a Sioux Falls photographer, will current her awards, which embody seven money prizes for all classes: win, place and present for colour; the identical three for black-and-white; and one, “juror’s choice,” for a brand new class known as “altered photography.”

“Ideally all the photos that have been submitted will be in the exhibit,” BAC Executive Director Rachel Funk defined. “So she’s not jurying what has been picked, she’s jurying her favorite. It’s fairly subjective.”

Continuing, Funk famous that yr’s exhibition — the forty seventh — marks the primary time for having a 3rd class: usually there are colour pictures and monochrome pictures submitted for judging. Now, pushed by what photographers submitted in 2025, a 3rd class has been added. In 2025, a complete of 37 pictures have been exhibited; this yr she anticipates a complete of about 40 in all classes.

“Last year we had several pieces submitted that were heavily edited,” the director defined. “Still gorgeous, but heavily edited to the point that you couldn’t even tell if they were photos or not. So we have a third category this year that is called ‘altered photography.’ It includes photographs that have been significantly altered or constructed through post-capture processes, regardless of the capture method. So it could be a still photo that you doctored afterward or a digital photo that you messed around with and put some filters on it. We’ve been letting artists self-identify what category they want to put their stuff in. We’ve been getting some great pictures every year. We don’t accept any AI images or editing using AI.”

Take house a clay gnome

In retaining with its mission of encouraging neighborhood connection by means of the humanities, the BAC brings artwork to the folks through such exhibitions because the one famous above — and it additionally brings the folks to artwork, typically in a hands-on, do-it-yourself enjoyable vogue, akin to Jan. 31’s Community Art Day on the South Dakota Art Museum.

“We’ve been doing a partnership with them since 2021,” Funk famous. “It was 4 a yr and we’ve moved it to 6 a yr. The BAC helps discover an artist and develop a lesson plan with them that matches the format that we’re going for. It’s just about an open home; folks come and go.

“It’s pretty much a self-taught project. The museum staff and I are kind of in there facilitating it. This one coming up here in January, I just happen to be teaching. We’ll be making clay gnomes.”

The venue is the multipurpose classroom on the artwork museum; the time is 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The gathering is what Funk calls a “come-and-go kind of project. … It’s kind of self-led; there’ll be like up to a hundred people in there, but over the course of three hours. So there’s too many people to sit down and go through steps one, two, and three.”

She added, “People are coming in, instructors are floating around helping them get started, checking in on them, giving them ideas, talking about how they’re doing. There is a lesson plan ion the table.”

Funk famous that, “We’ve done watercolor painting, collage, weaving, printing,” citing such previous patrons-hand-on ventures. And individuals have included all ages: school college students and adults, for instance. “We see a lot of the same people that come every single time.”

This first Community Art Day of the yr can have every participant leaving with a take-away challenge that may be labored on additional: an air-dried clay mini-gnome.

“Over the course of a couple days it’ll dry and then they can paint it,” Funk defined.

Take house a gnome; it’s a neat little deal with.

For extra details about all that the Brookings Arts Council affords the neighborhood, go to its web site at brookingsartscouncil.org.

— Contact John Kunal at jlkubal@cmpapers.com.