“Just to give you a little bit of history, 2019 was our 18th year” for the Young Artist Exhibit, according to Art in the Loft Executive Director Justin Christensen-Cooper, who actually displayed his work as a high school senior in the first show in 2001.

Last year, schools closed at the same time they would normally be submitting the artwork.

“We were amping up and getting ready for the 2020 show, and schools closed,” Christensen-Cooper said. “Teachers weren’t allowed back in their classrooms, and that was the height of all the drama around the beginning of COVID. And, we eventually had to just call it.”

So all 2020 Young Artist Exhibit activities were canceled.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley This “Curious Bunny” came all the way from Madisonville, Louisiana, in watercolor form by Annabelle Phillpott.

“And then, fast forward, we were amping up to get 2021 back on track, and kind of the same thing, the schools were in and out so much, and one classroom couldn’t get their artwork in,” he said, adding that more and more classrooms were having trouble collecting and submitting artwork. “We just kind of realized as a staff and board at the Loft that there were just too many intangibles … We’ve just got to do something different. We’ve got to make a left turn.”

He said they decided to accept youth artwork from preschool through seniors in high school from all over Northeast Michigan and beyond.

“We decided to do a community call for art instead,” Christensen-Cooper explained. “And, not really knowing how it would go, we were pleasantly surprised by the turnout. We ended up getting 107 online submissions.”

In prior years, the exhibit has drawn between 500 to 600 pieces of work from local students, coming from 20 different schools, he said.

“The majority of those came from Northeast Michigan,” he said of the 107 artists featured this year. “We have quite a few coming from the Posen area, Rogers City, a lot from Alpena, of course, but we also had some out-of-state submissions too, which was kind of cool. Some people that had connections to Alpena or Northeast Michigan relatives.”

News Photo by Darby Hinkley A mixed media piece called “Cat in the Sun” by homeschooler Harlow Mae Olsen, age 6/7.

Art in the Loft is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and again next Friday and Saturday.

The gallery will open back up for operation “as normal” on Memorial Day weekend, Christensen-Cooper said.

To view the online Young Artist Exhibit, visit artintheloft.org.

Next on tap at the Loft is “Summer View” starting on May 29.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley A surreal drawing by Courtney Hubbard.