According to art teacher Martha Ortman, Park art teachers meet once a year to decide which student art pieces will be submitted to the annual Metro West Conference Visual Art Exhibition.

According to Normandale.edu, schools in the Metro West conference submit art pieces to be displayed and judged at Normandale Community College.

The conference includes Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Bloomington Jefferson, Bloomington Kennedy, Chanhassen, Chaska, Richfield, Robbinsdale Cooper and St. Louis Park.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Used with written permission from Martha Ortman

Senior Trez Cook-Hinton with his award of achievement for his photo "Grounded." This is the second time a Park student has won an award of achievement.

Ortman said each school in the conference can only submit 10 pieces of art created throughout the year.

“During the year, anything that is really good is put off to the side. By the end of the year, I might have 20 things. However, we can only enter ten (pieces) per school,” Ortman said.  “So (the art teachers) meet and discuss which ones would be the best to submit.”

Ortman said judges gave Awards of Excellence, Merit and Achievement to students’ work and seniors Trez Cook-Hinton and Haley Larson won awards.

“Trez won an Award of Achievement and Haley got an Award of Merit which is the highest the school has gotten,” Ortman said.

Cook-Hinton said his piece,”Grounded”, was a photograph he took for the elements and principles assignments completed by Photo 1 students each year.

“It was a picture of me in a NASA hat next to a highrise with some clouds. I was ecstatic (when my work was submitted) and then shocked when (it won),” Cook-Hinton said.

Larson said she was surprised when Ortman asked if she wanted to submit her piece, “Nana”, to the art show.

“(My great-grandmother) is my favorite person ever so I use her as a subject a lot for when I take pictures. I was really excited because I’ve never really been in anything like that before,” Larson said.

According to Normandale.edu, the college will host the Metro West art collection from May 14 to May 28.