Madison Artists Guild (MAG) is showcasing work from Morgan County students as a part of the High School’s 2025 Student Art Exhibition.
The art gallery features a collection of pieces from 37 students, and will remain on display until Sept 5.
The MAG recently celebrated the students’ creations with a gallery reception on Aug 21, and offered various refreshments at the ceremony. Multiple student artists spoke at the Thursday evening event, sharing stories about their showcased artworks.
The students created their work during the Spring of the 2024-2025 school year for the “community-wide” Art for Life (AFLAT) exhibit, which took place at the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, featuring work from K-12 students in the county.
“This is the second year that the Madison Artists Guild has curated works from the Art for Life exhibition,” said Karen Peters, the president of the MAG. They really wanted only high school this time, so our curating committee went in before [AFLAT] opened, looked at work that just really had good talent, and then we stored them away until the Fall.”
Peters noted that the Madison Artists Guild found it best to display the students’ work on-site, during the fall. She believes that the ability to display the work over four weeks, is an excellent way for the MAG “to increase artistic endeavor in the community.”
“With me not being an artist, I can really just appreciate how much work goes into it,” Peters said. “But our artists, people gracing these walls, they are fascinated, and some of the people who had inquired about wanting to purchase these works, have been a lot of our artists, and so it’s really a cool program.”
As the Morgan County High School Art Teacher, Kristin Chandler works with students from her Art 1-4 courses, and AP Art. The contributing students for the recent exhibition completed their work throughout different time spans, as a part of the 90-minute class period.
“This Exhibition is a little bit from each of those classes,” Chandler said. “It’s kind of like encompassing all the mediums, so just different ages, different talents, and skill levels.”
Chandler mentioned that a lot of the selected students took multiple weeks to complete their work, but the timeframes varied “depending on the projects they worked on.”
With the success of the fall exhibition, Chandler credits the MAG for their contribution to hosting the exhibit. She was pleased with the reception turnout, and believes the entire opportunity has been exceptional for her students.
“The Guild is very generous in hosting this art show for us,” Chandler said. “It’s an honor for the students to have their work shown in a gallery of amazing artists in our community.”
Since the exhibition consisted of work from the previous school year, several of the displays additionally featured works of the most recent Morgan County Class of 2025. Some of the contributing artists are now in their final year, and have another chance to exhibit more work in the school’s spring 2026 art show.
Maggie Rogers, a senior from Morgan County, had two pieces of artwork selected for this season’s exhibition and utilized different resources for both of her creations. She is currently the president of the school’s art club, and has worked with Chandler throughout her entire high school career.
“The art program here has been really great and really opened my talents,” Rogers said. “Before I transferred to Morgan County, I went to another private school that didn’t really have that much opportunity for me.”
Rogers used Charcoal to create her piece, Shoes, which is a black-and-white drawing focused on a young adult’s Adidas sneakers. She used acrylic paint for her additional project, Study of Degas’ “Waiting,” which represents dancers preparing to perform.
“For the shoes one, we had a study on perspectives and how to apply your knowledge of it through photos, and so basically I worked on that and also my technique through charcoal, since I don’t really work with it that well,” Rogers said. “At first, there was a little ant that was in the drawing, but then I added it [in the final piece], and I think it really shows your perspective on the little things.”
Overall, Rogers has enjoyed being a part of the MAG’s exhibit, and appreciates seeing her work on display. She hopes to continue her work in art and attend college to study graphic design.
“[The community recognition] is really inspiring,” Rogers said. “It feels like I’m doing something that I can continue.”