Students add to CLC gallery

College of Lake County students will display their work and have a chance to win extra cash through scholarships at the 28th annual Student Art Exhibition.

The juried exhibit opens Friday at the Robert T. Wright Community Gallery of Art on the Grayslake campus. An opening reception features the awards presentation and a performance by Jazz Spectrum.

The reception is free to the public and runs from 7 to 9 p.m.

Students in studio art classes at CLC - which range from painting, drawing and sculpture to photography, graphic design and digital media - submitted work from the last school year and summer to be judged for the competition.

"It's kind of a culmination for many of them of a year's worth of work," said Steve Jones, curator of the gallery.

Several scholarships and merit awards will be presented during the opening reception, including two $500 scholarships and two $50 merit awards from the Lake County Art League, nine $50 merit awards from the CLC student activities office and a $500 purchase award from Norman and Susan Kronowitz of Mundelein.

"With all the awards we have the opportunity to present, it makes it even more exciting for the students," Jones said.

Nina Weiss, adjunct instructor of art at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, will select the works to be included in the exhibition.

"It's really up to her discretion ... you just kind of allow her to select what she feels is interesting conceptually and well done in terms of craftsmanship," Jones said.

Any artwork given a purchase award will become part of the college's permanent art collection, which includes work from local artists as well as artists from around the country and world.

The exhibit runs through May 16.