The Winona County History Center is currently full of many international art pieces — but not the kind you often see in a museum, unless you are making a visit to Minnesota Marine Art Museum some time soon.
Space-themed owl art, submitted over the years during the International Owl Center’s annual kids’ art contest, is on display right now at WCHC.
And the exhibit, titled “Owls in Outer Space: International Youth Art Show with International Owl Center,” is packed full of diverse art from different countries matching that theme — about 127 pieces in total.
International Owl Center educator Andie Harveaux, who coordinates the art contest, explained, “We get a lot of really nice entries. And we really want people to be able to see them, so we’d rather not just keep them in storage forever.”
The space theme was chosen for an art exhibit because it’s been a common focus in art pieces from all over the world throughout the years — even though there hasn’t been a contest prompt to include the non-Earth-like focus.
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Jennifer Weaver, Winona County Historical Society museum educator, explained that the display ended up at WCHC because “we always love partnering with area museums, organizations and others. The Owl Center had a travelling show from their art contests and it was a fun opportunity. It is such a unique and well-curated show.”
Harveaux shared that the art at WCHC comes from around the world, including Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, India, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey.
Additionally, the exhibit includes children’s art from many different U.S. states.
Weaver explained that she believes it’s important to have the art on display at WCHC because “the arts are a big part of Winona today, but are also rooted deep into our past. Fine art, theater, music, dance and more have long histories here and this is a way to foster the continuation of that long heritage. Art is a way of expression and carries many stories about the time it was created.”
Bloem
“It’s just amazing to see. It’s just mind-blowing. The kids are so creative in so many different ways,” International Owl Center executive director Karla Bloem said. “And for us, we’ve always wanted to do the space owl exhibit because kids from all over the world were sending us art depicting owls in space.”
Bloem shared that it is always amazing being able to see how culture influences the art — like how children from some countries may include brighter colors than children from other countries.
Weaver shared that people have loved the chance to see the owl art.
She explained, “People really love it and cannot believe the ages of some of the youth that have created these stunning and unique pieces. There are so many ways to depict owls. The variety of the art, but also where it came from and who made it, really excites people.”
MMAM also has a display of owl art from the contest currently available to be viewed. That exhibit features art from Ukranian children, in honor of the challenges that are currently being faced in Ukraine during the Russian invasion.
The contest, in it’s almost two decades of existence, has become beloved around the world.
Bloem explained that the contest began as a small, local program where kids would color owl artwork and then they would be used to decorate for the annual Owl Festival.
But, when the internet became more popular, the contest expanded and a prize would be given in the contest to whoever submitted an owl art piece from the farthest away.
Foreign entries became more common then, with children from places such as Indonesia and Australia submitting their owl art.
The contest grew and grew from there, especially when the International Owl Center was established in 2015. Before then, the annual festival and contest was organized by the Houston Nature Center.
A few years following the creation of the International Owl Center, the art contest exploded — with entries going from about 400 to 700 to over 4,000, because of the contest being shared about on a popular Russian social media site.
“We were not prepared for that,” Bloem remembered.
After limiting how many entries each school could send in, the number of entries each year has went down to about 2,000 to 3,000 per year.
“They’re really talented kids,” Harveaux said. “And it’s such a geography lesson and such a world politics lesson for us because we do get kids that are in places where things are hard.”
Both Harveaux and Bloem explained that current world events can make an impact on the contest and how it runs, like how email entries have had to be allowed for some students due to wars impacting the ability to safely send mail.
Additionally, Russian students are limited now from submitting content due to the lack of mail flow between Russia and the United States currently.
The space-themed owl art at WCHC is set to be on display through Jan. 1.
The Ukrainian owl art at MMAM will be on display through Dec. 31.
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