The BRG tradition of supporting our area's most talented young artists was renewed this April.

In April, Baton Rouge Gallery once again opened its doors inside BREC’s historic City Park to its annual REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCE Juried High School Exhibition. The community was treated to over 40 works of original art from East Baton Rouge public and private high school students.

The exhibition was sponsored by the Louisiana State University School of Art.2013 REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCE Juried High School Exhibition First Place winner Julia McConnell (The Runnels School) with her instructor Lee Randall

This energizing exhibition highlighted the work of East Baton Rouge Parish’s high school students; not only sharing their talents with their community, but encouraging and inspiring them to continue pursuing their artistic talents by exhibiting their work in a professional gallery setting. The exhibition also spotlighted the importance of arts education, celebrating both its positive effects on the youths of our community and the efforts of the educators that challenge their students.

Click here to read The Advocate's story on the exhibition.

During the April 3 reception, award-winning works were announced with over $1,400 in scholarships and prizes awarded, courtesy of the LSU School of Art.

First Place: Julia McConnell (The Runnels School)

Second Place: Garrett J. Kemp (University Lab School)

Third Place: Susannah Burke (The Runnels School)

"At a young age, most teenagers seem to think they can't make a difference in the world; these teenagers are completely wrong. For young adults like myself who struggled with self image during high school, being able to just participate, not even win, was a huge accomplishment in my book. Being in this show was definitely a start to the rest of my art career, and a new beginning on how I percieved myself and my work."

-Morgan Dupre, 2012 R.L.E. First Place Winner

In March, roughly 150 works of original art were submitted for possible inclusion in this competitive exhibition. In keeping with the spirit of the exhibition’s title, this truly is a "real-life experience" in that not every student who submits work is included in the exhibition. As professional artists find every time they seek to participate in a juried exhibition, life as a visual artist is difficult and highly competitive.

For this exhibition, a panel of three jurors was assembled to select the works to be included in the show and the prize-winning works via a completely blind jurying process. None of the jurors knew the artist’s name, grade level, school or teacher prior to the selection of any work, thus allowing them to select pieces for the show based solely on their artistic merits.

BRG artist members Dawn Black, Eleanor Owen Kerr and Van Wade-Day were faced with a difficult and inherently subjective task of whittling down the pool of roughly 150 works to create an exhibition of fewer than 50 pieces. Each artist has shown in respected galleries across the United States and brings first-hand knowledge of what "real-life" is like for professional artists. More information on this year’s jury panel can be found by clicking on each artist’s name at http://www.batonrougegallery.org/our-artist-members/.

For more information on this exhibition, contact Baton Rouge Gallery at 225-383-1470.