HASTINGS, Neb. – Despite the morning rain, the art must go on.

For the first time in its 10 year history on Wednesday, the Hastings College outdoor mural day competition became an indoor competition.

"It was quite stressful in the morning when it was raining like crazy." said Hastings St. Cecilia senior Ani Cerny. 

The college’s annual mural day shifted inside to dodge the precipitation, and welcomed more than 200 students from 36 Nebraska high schools to showcase their drawing and painting skills in a crunch.

"It's a way for us to be able to bring students to campus, show them our amazing facilities, introduce them to Hastings College, and give them something they can work on together as a community." said Hastings College Art Dept. Chair Brian Corr.

Art takes time, deliberation, and a trained eye, but Wednesday’s participants had to complete their masterpieces battling against a set time limit of three and a half hours. 

"They don't have a lot of time to do this project. Some paintings take artists days or weeks," said Corr. "They have to come up with an idea, and execute that project in a really short amount of time, so the work is really spontaneous and fun, typically."

The murals given to the high schoolers spanned three by five feet, but artists didn’t know what they were required to paint until they began this morning.

This year’s theme was surrealism, which needed to include a location, an animal, and an inanimate object of the teams' choosing.

With the average school bringing five to seven kids, Hastings St. Cecilia’s team of just three girls are using last year’s experience to surpass the friendly competition.

"We're here to win." joked St. Cecilia senior Emery Vargas. 

"We're here to have fun, we're here to have maybe a place, hopefully a winning place," said Cerny. "I love art, so I think this is one of the best things that could happen today."

Organizers say the best part about the program is highlighting the Hastings College art department to these high schoolers, especially with the college now offering full-ride art scholarships for the first time ever.

"This current class, we're able to offer four full-ride scholarships for our majors, this coming year we're going to be offering eight scholarships, and every year after that we're going to be offering 10 full-ride scholarships for art majors, which is really unheard of," said Corr. "Mural Day for us is a really great way of announcing this new scholarship program. It's something that has the potential to change students lives."

Prizes will come in the form of art supplies to the top three pieces produced, but each school will at least get to take their masterpieces home at the end of the day. 

After judging Wednesday afternoon, North Platte St. Patrick's was awarded the best mural. Thayer Central took 2nd place, and Centura placed 3rd. 

Participating high schools were from Adams Central, Beatrice, Bellevue East, Buena Vista, Centura, Crete, Doniphan-Trumbull, Franklin, Gibbon, Giltner, Gothenburg, Grand Island Lutheran, Grand Island Senior High, Hampton, Hastings Senior High, Hastings St. Cecilia, Heartland Community Schools, Johnson County Central, Kearney High, Kenesaw, Lawrence-Nelson, North Platte St. Pat's, Northwest, O'Neill, Omaha Burke, Palmer, Ravenna, Riverside, Roncalli Catholic, Sandy Creek, Silver Lake, Southern Valley, Sumner-Eddyville-Miller, Superior, Thayer Central, and Waverly.

North Platte St. Pat's art team took 1st place

 

Thayer Central's art team was awarded 2nd place

 

The Centura art team took 3rd place