The 2022 Young Artist Exhibit is colorful and inspiring, featuring pieces from kindergartners up to seniors in high school. This is the last week to view it, so if you want to be impressed, get to the gallery.

A special after-hours evening is planned for 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, and the exhibit will be on display through May 7. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, on the third floor of Center Building, 109 N. 2nd Ave. in downtown Alpena.

“For every student in the show, the grant through CFNEM is allowing us to get an art supply goodie bag for every student,” said Art in the Loft Executive Director Justin Christensen-Cooper.

He was extremely happy with the quantity and quality of the artwork submitted.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley This mixed media drawing was made by Sophia Chessor, a junior at Alcona High School.

“It was way more than I thought it would be,” Christensen-Cooper said.

The limited timeframe and calling for art submitted individually instead of through the schools factored in to his concern that there might be fewer pieces this year, but he was pleasantly proven wrong.

“It’s getting up there with the numbers we had from before COVID, really,” he said. “We had kind of a short timeframe we had to get everything in.”

He said they did not have a reception this year.

The show is underwritten by a grant from the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan.

Savannah McDonald, a seventh-grader at Alcona Community Schools, created this colored pencil piece featuring a dark tree silhouette and circles of bright color blocking radiating out from the center of the tree.

At Friday’s event, the best of show will be announced. Anyone in attendance can put their name in for a raffle basket to be given that night as well.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley This piece is by Allie Travis, a tenth-grader at Alcona High School.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley This painting is by Warren Leeseberg, a tenth-grader at Alcona High School.