"This was actually the first year I had heard about this," said Emily Langenberg, the undergraduate winner of this year's second Student Art Competition. "I thought, 'ok, why not?' and I entered."
Langenberg, a senior English major, was one of two winners this year after only one was selected in the competition’s inaugural year. The other was graduate student Volodymyr Shcherbak.
"I think (the competition) is a good opportunity to have my work in the library collection," Shcherbak said.
Cliff Haka, director of MSU Libraries, said due to donations from Irene Arens Endowment in Support of Student Art, MSU Libraries was able to select both an undergraduate and graduate winner this year.
"The first year we just had one prize winner and it was a little imbalanced because the graduate works are generally slightly better than the undergrads," Haka said. "We felt we would be, long term, always awarding it to graduate students."
Shcherbak and Langenberg were selected from a field of 72 entries, said Terrie Wilson, art librarian for MSU Libraries.
Wilson said she and the four other judges viewed the entries electronically through email and narrowed the choices to six finalists. From there, the judges viewed each work in person and selected the winners.
Both students received a $500 award in addition to having their paintings hung on the wall of the main library. The library purchases the paintings and uses them and subsequent winners’ paintings to cover bare walls.
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