ALPENA — Alpena High School art students recently took second place in the Congressional Art Competition and their art will be featured for 11 months at an exhibit that runs the length of the Cannon tunnel that connects the Cannon House Office Building to the U.S. Capitol Building.

Students Alexandria Bruning, Zoey Collins, Bianca Maj, Sofia Maj, Luise Paditz, Hope Reed, Emily Robinette, Kaitlyn Smith, and Branden Zann were the team that put in the hard work in to complete the accomplishment.

The artwork is going to be displayed in Washington D.C. and result of the students’ efforts were to win a $75,000 grand prize for the Vans Custom Culture Shoes Contest, teacher Kyle Kieliszewski said. He said the funds would have been to restore the art program.

Four shoes were heavily modified to meet the contest’s requirements. One pair had to be designed to communicate the local flavor of the entrants’ community, and the students decided to focus on the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s mission of preserving the numerous shipwrecks of the region.

“The team of students came up with the ideas for the artwork, while I provided material support and guidance whenever they hit a snag of how they approached a particular level of challenge,” Kieliszewski said. “They did remarkable work on both sets of shoes. Each have a captivating theme and reached an admirable level of polish for the limited amount of time that we were allotted.”

The piece was selected by a team of judges and Congressman Jack Bergman.

“I am very proud of these students’ teamwork and the fruits of their hard labor,” Kieliszewski said.

Julie Goldberg can be reached via email at jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5688.