Artwork created by Josie Briggs.

Josie Briggs took home a win for the District 214 Art Expo Throwdown with 381 votes. This event occurred from November 17-21.

”I know my teacher, Megan Zeivel wanted the school to win,” Briggs said, “but at least if our school didn’t win overall at least Prospect still won something.” 

In addition to 10 other schools, all of the art teachers at District 214 were sent google forms, and posters were spread out all over their schools to encourage people to vote for the art they liked best. Briggs sent out those forms to everyone she knew so she could get votes to help Prospect. The District 214 Art Expo Throwdown showcased student artwork selected by the art teachers. 

This competition was split up by schools.  Each school selected about 10 art pieces to represent their school and to present in the showcase. There were pieces that were 3D, 2D, digital, and sculptured/pottery pieces. Elk Grove tends to win the competition most years, but Briggs took home a win this year for Prospect.

In Briggs’ AP art class, students have art portfolios. Each year their art is supposed to answer a question. Briggs question this year was, “What would the world look like without humans and how nature reclaims urban spaces?”

Briggs didn’t know that she was entered into the competition. Zeivel, entered for her. 

Manuel Garcia, one of the new Prospect art teachers who used to work at Elk Grove, said he wanted Prospect to win this year. The art department knew that Prospect wasn’t going to win overall, so they were really hoping for an individual to win. Briggs says that she knows she can’t get everyone to vote for Prospect, but she can try to get a lot of people to vote for her.

”Yeah, it’s cool that mine won, but it was more… that Prospect was featured,” Briggs said.

The same art that was entered into the District 214 Art Expo Throwdown was also in Harper College’s art competition on November 19. She won second place at Harper for her piece that won first at the District 214 Art Expo Throwdown. That piece was a 2D picture of the Trevi Fountain covered in vines and greens. Her second piece that was entered into the District 214 Art Expo Throwdown got honorable mention at the Harper competition. That piece was broken telephone wires covered with animals.

Briggs mainly does art just for fun. She wanted to take art her freshman year but couldn’t due to the course being full, so she took her first art class sophomore year. Then, junior year, she took Art 2  for one semester. At the end of her junior year she went to her teacher and asked if she could be placed into AP Art. 

Briggs doesn’t plan on getting an art-related degree. She wants to get a degree for nursing, but she did apply to two art schools. Briggs said that if she doesn’t get selected into a nursing program, art history will be her back up.

While sports, band, music, and theater get a lot of recognition for what they do, Briggs loves that this contest shined a light on something she’s passionate about.

“…I think people are kind of like, ‘Oh, I’ll just take art for fun because I need an art credit,’ which is great and I think art is great for that because I think that it should be for fun,” Briggs said, “but also I think it should be recognized that like, it gets a lot of awards and a lot of recognition that I wish more people saw.” 

Check out some of Briggs’ artwork:

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