Teenagers have taken over the entire first floor of the Springville Museum of Art, but not in the way one would expect.
High school students from across Utah submitted their sculptures, photographs, paintings and more to the Springville Museum of Art for their 54th annual Utah All-State High School Art Show.
The museum says they received more than 1,000 submissions this year, a record-breaking number for the show.
"It's not just paintings on the walls," Cheynie Wray, teen programs specialist, said.
Each artwork belongs to one of the show's four categories: painting, drawing, 3d or mixed media, photography and digital art.
"We have lots of different kinds of mediums throughout the show, which you can see if you’re walking through the galleries," Wray said.
Not every artist's piece made it into the show. Twelve judges reviewed the submissions and selected 352 pieces of art for the exhibition.
"I love the high school show for the chance that it gives high school artists to have their work exhibited in the museum," Wray said. “For me personally with my job role, I love getting to know these students on somewhat of a deeper level in communicating with them about their artworks being in the show."
Some artwork lines the walls, some rests on pedestals or tables. Some even hang from the ceiling.
"So yeah, it's really fun and kind of diverse what kinds of artworks we get," Wray said. "We have a couple of salon walls which are themed, so in our high school show, here we have a zoo salon wall, a water salon wall, and then an interior spaces salon wall."
While the exhibition is up, many high schools make the trip to Springville so students can see their peers’ artwork on display.
"Everybody here who entered something is so talented — like genuinely, it's impressive and I need to come see it," high school student Sidney Seamons said. "Art really brings people together. Like any, anybody can connect their own way to like any of these pieces and they can like bring their own emotions into it."
The museum provides paper hearts at the beginning of the exhibition, so museumgoers can leave a ‘like’ on their favorite pieces.
"This annual high school show is a wonderful way for us to kind of keep the spirit of Art City and of those high school students over 100 years ago who began the museum in the first place," Wray said.
The student submissions will be on display at the Springville Museum of Art until March 20, when the exhibition closes.
To check out these high school students' artwork, visit the Springville Museum of Art for free, or go to its website to view an online gallery of the exhibition.