The Cotton District Arts Festival committee recently selected not just one, but five Mississippi State University students as winners for the official poster design for the Arts Festival. “We put on the festival each year, and we have the poster to highlight the event,” Brent Funderburk, art department head, said. “We realized how much talent we had on campus and wanted to get the students involved.”
Lauren McClure, a senior from Collierville, Tenn., was selected as the 2002 festival winner. Her design was a loose ink drawing and watercolor of the Cotton District.
“It’s almost like a drawing,” McClure said. “It shows an aerial view of the Cotton District.”
The posters of other entrants, which will be used up until the 2006 events, were designed by Catherine Coker of Corinth, Jonathan Shull of Philadelphia, Jennifer Simmons of Athens, Ala., and Janna Scott of Aberdeen.
The winners were all students of Jamie Mixon, professor of graphic design at MSU.
“Mrs. Mixon assigned us to create our own design for the poster,” McClure said. “We were given the date, name of place and other information required and told to work from there.”
Mixon had 20 students submit designs for the Arts Festival poster, all with the same basic inspiration, that Starkville is a fun place.
“Our committee was extremely impressed with the quality of work produced by all the students, and we were delighted to have this opportunity to interact with the students,” Emily Jones, president of the Starkville Area Arts Council, said.
“This was such a boon for us,” Jones said. “You just can’t imagine the quality of work these students did. No ad company that we might have hired to do the posters could have done better.
“We intended to select a design for this year’s festival,” Jones said. “But they were all so impressive that we just decided to pick five and use them over the next few years.”
The Arts Festival will be April 27 in the Cotton District area on University Drive. The festival will include live music, an arts and crafts booth, flower competition, a pet parade, a 5-K run and many other colorful events.
“We moved the Festival to the Cotton District for the students,” Jones said. “We have not had a lot of student participation because it’s usually during rest, but we hope the closeness of the festival will encourage students to come out.”
Along with the festive events will be a T-shirt sale with the winning poster design printed on them, but only a limited number are in stock.
For more information about the Arts Festival, call the department of art at 325-2970.