REGENHARDT GALLERY AT SHRODE ART CENTER

Shrode Fine Art & Craft Competition Exhibit

March 29 – June 15, 2025
• Exhibit Open: Tuesday – Saturday 10 am to 5 pm & Sunday 1 to 5 pm
• Gallery Admission – Free

GATHER AT THE GALLERIES – EXHIBIT OPENING RECEPTION

Saturday, March 29 | 5:00 to 7:00 pm
Admission $10.00 | Cedarhurst Members – Free

Open bar and appetizers | 5 to 6 pm
Shrode Fine Art & Craft Competition Awards Announcement | 6 pm
Gallery hop to see the art and meet the artists | 5 to 7 pm
Shuttle rides to Shrode Art Center | 6 to 7 pm

Art Chat

Thursday, June 12 | 6:15 pm *during Thursday Night Live
Regenhardt Gallery at Shrode Art Center
Moderator: Carrie Stover
Exhibiting artists and public welcome

Gallery Sponsors:

Bill and Sylvia Howard
The Bernard and Naomi L. Podolsky Charitable Trust

ABOUT THE JUDGE

Maddie Aunger is an artist and educator from St. Louis, Missouri. In 2018 Maddie graduated from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Art Education, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing, and a minor in Art History. In 2019, she left St. Louis to attend University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She graduated from UNL with her MFA in May of 2022 and returned home to Missouri. She is currently the Education Coordinator at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, an organization that shares many similarities with Cedarhurst! Maddie’s paintings walk the line between expressing sensation and capturing the reality of the everyday. They are quiet, crisp, orderly, and controlled representations of places around her home, executed on an intimate scale in acrylic on panel.

About the Exhibit:

The Shrode Fine Art and Craft Competition and Exhibition is an annual exhibit open to all artists 18 years of age and older living in southern Illinois, south of Interstate 70, including Charleston, IL. Artists may enter a variety of media including painting, drawing, printmaking, clay, fiber, mixed media, wood, fine jewelry, metal, and sculpture. There are five prestigious awards; Best of Show ($500), Best of 2-Dimensional ($250), 2 Honorable Mention ($175 each), and 4 Merit Certificates. This year 335 works of art were submitted for judging and 46 works were chosen for the exhibit by Maddie Aunger, our guest judge.

Comments from the Competition Judge:

The 2025 Shrode Fine Art & Craft Competition Exhibition had record turnout! 335 pieces were submitted, nearly double the entries in 2024! I was honored to judge such an impressive outpouring of artwork. I’d like to send a massive thank you to every artist who shared their work with me and put themselves out there. Making art and sharing it with others takes bravery, and I admire every artist that takes that chance. I was very excited to be asked to judge this exhibition. As a previous entrant in 2017 it is a full circle moment to approach the show as a judge.

The quantity, and quality of these entries made judging a difficult job but I was excited for the task. Artists from all over Southern Illinois sent in their work; it is wonderful to see what artists in the area are exploring and expressing. One of my goals while judging this competition was to showcase as many artists as possible, to show the variety of ideas and styles submitted. It was my aim to pick the best of the best in a multitude of materials, subjects, styles, and scales. Due to the size limitations of the Regenhardt Gallery at Shrode Art Center, the competition was stiff! Something that all of the work in this exhibition has in common is care and craftsmanship. In my opinion, what separates good art from great art is intentionality. It is one thing to have skill, and it is another to be thoughtful about how you use that skill to present ideas. I believe that everyone who visits this exhibition will walk away impressed, there is something for everyone!