This past fall, Brentwood students earned local, regional and even international recognition for their artwork!
100 Neediest Cases
The images featured above are some of the Brentwood winners for the annual contest 100 Neediest Cases. 100 Neediest Cases is an art contest sponsored by the St. Louis Post Dispatch and United Way of Greater St. Louis. The contest happens each year in the fall where high school students in the Saint Louis area are invited to submit a drawing that represents someone in need.
Of all the submitted drawings, 40 of them are chosen to be featured alongside stories about people in need that are published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch starting mid-November and leading up to the end of March 2025.
Almost every year, Brentwood’s Art III and IV students enter the contest, and every year, Mr. Rempel has had multiple students chosen for their artwork to be featured. But this year was the first time that every single Brentwood student who entered was chosen to be one of the top 40. Last year was the second-highest year with 14 Brentwood students placing in the top 40. But this year there were 18!
In order to come up with what they want to draw, Mr. Rempel’s students first look to photos for inspiration – from images of people who are homeless to children with illnesses to people experiencing domestic abuse. They choose the picture that they would want to illustrate and take many days to draw it. “Our class did visual research on an image that sorta called to us,” said junior Kensington Curd. Of the 100 images chosen, Curd’s was ranked second!
“The illustrations are with the story,” said Mr. Rempel, “The program is designed to illustrate different stories that the Post Dispatch and stl.com are going to present to their viewers.”
Explorers Against Extinction
Lizzy Butler, who placed fourth this year in 100 Neediest Case, was recognized for another art award. She won first place in the art competition, Explorers Against Extinction.Explorers Against Extinction is a UK-based conservation charity working with partners worldwide to recover key species and restore ecosystems. For this contest, whe had to pick an endangered species to draw. “I went to the St. Louis Zoo and took a reference photo of animals, like a hippo. I drew that in colored pencil, shipped it and I won first place for my age group.”
According to Mr. Rempel, “Being a finalist means that Lizzy’s work will join the wider On the Edge exhibition this fall which includes dates in Edinburgh and London and the work of some very prestigious artists.”
Webster University
Like Butler, junior Kamille Jefferson was also honored with another artistic award this fall, in addition to being a finalist in 100 Neediest Cases. Her photo of seniors Joshua Jackson, Emma Trostel, and Logan Hawkins that she took at the Homecoming Pep Rally was chosen to be featured in The Kooyumjian Gallery at Webster University.
The contest through Webster University was for high school photographers. Any student in the area could enter up to two photos to be juried by Webster University photography professor. This year, there were more than 520 photos submitted, and Jefferson’s was one of the 75 that was chosen to be included in the exhibit. “I was really shocked; I didn’t think I would get in, honestly,” said Jefferson, “I felt like I had taken the photo on accident,” she said with a laugh. “I was playing around with the settings and it just turned out!” This exhibition will run from December 6 until January 28, 2025, with a grand opening of the exhibit on Dec. 6th. “I’m really excited to go to the gallery opening.”
Congratulations to all of the talented artists at Brentwood!
