BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Staff Writer
From colorful paintings to black and white drawings to photography, the community was able to view what artists in grades 6-12 have been working on during the virtual edition of the 12th Annual Imagine That Teen Art Show.
“I always love seeing the wide range of pieces submitted to the art show,” said Alayna Jones, Clarkston Independence District Library Youth & Teen Services Librarian. “Most shows have specific requirements for style, technique, or format, but not our show. We get things from traditional drawings with pencils to paintings on musical instrument. The variety and the talent is astounding.”
The art show, usually held in the spring, was moved to the end of July due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also changed the show to virtual instead of in-person.

Jones added it was hard to change the show with the pandemic going on.
” The library has been navigating a whole new playing field for programming,” she explained. “We’ve been doing our best to translate our programs into an online setting. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I really wanted this to be a time it did work. It wasn’t as simple as just streaming a Facebook live show either since I wanted to also share the Powerpoint presentation at the same time. Luckily, our technology department is amazing and helped me with taking the pictures and streaming the event with the screen sharing addition. There was a little bit of lag with the video, but overall I think we accomplished what we wanted.”
Jones added the response from artists and the community was good.
“We didn’t get as many submissions as we normally would, but I’m happy with the number of responses we received considering how short notice the deadline was,” she said. “Normally artists have months to prepare for the show, but this time they only had a few weeks to get the submissions to me.”
After viewing the pieces on the library’s Facebook page, the community could vote for their favorite in four categories by clicking on a link.
Jones added the response was amazing with 269 ballots submitted.
“I wasn’t sure how many votes to expect, since I didn’t know how many people the promotions and the live video would reach,” she said. “I am really pleased with the number of people who got to vote and watch the live event.”
Jones added thank you to all of the artists and the community.
“Thank you for being patient with us during all of this and for continuing to support us as we navigate new ways to offer library services to the community,” she said.
Winners from the 2020 Imagine That Art Show are:
From sixth grade category: Katie Miller, “Summer Dreams,” first place; Charley Bousho, “Reflecting Childhood,” second place; and Ava Danielson, “Peek-a-Boo in the Sun,” third place.
From seventh grade category: Leah Buikema, “Behold,” first place; Ava Deloca, “Blue Morning,” second place; and Chloe Wood, “Water’s Beauty,” third place.
From eighth and ninth grade category: Katie Haar, “Mountain Scene,” first place; Rebekah Wilson, “The Sweetness of Summer,” second place; and Clara Kociba, “The Color Within,” third place.
From the 10th and 11th grade category: Samantha Moyet, “Heterochromia,” first place; Savannah Wheeler, “Fireflies,” second place; and Olivia Colletti, “Eyes of the Lion,” third place. The overall audience favorite was Moyet’s “Heterochromia.”
Jones added the library is planning ahead for fall programs.
“We’ve been able to take what we’ve learned from our summer reading program and adapt it to some of our fall program plans,” she said. “The community can look forward to some familiar concepts like Zoom book clubs, take-and-make crafts and some new things we are hoping to try out.”
For more information about upcoming programs, visit cidlibrary.org.

  Clarkston Independence District Library, Imagine That