Redlands News | June 11, 2026
Hilton advances to the November general election, where he’ll face longtime politician Xavier Becerra.
Children and teenagers can receive free lunch at the Family Services Association of Redlands this summer.
More than 140 student artists showcased paintings, sculptures and digital art at the Redlands Youth Art Expo during the Festival of Arts.
Saturday afternoon, the Youth Art Expo tent at the Redlands Festival of Arts was filled with young, hopeful artists viewing their work and waiting to hear the winners announced.
“This is our 6th Youth Art Expo,” said Annette Weis, co-organizer of the event. “We created this just for your kids. This Youth Art Expo started because we both believe in what Margaret Clark did and we have carried on her dream.”
The Margaret Clark Arts Education Enrichment Fund (MCAEEF) continues the legacy of Margaret Clark who was a University of Redlands professor and founder of Redlands Art Association in 1964. MCAEEF runs the twice-yearly Redlands Cinema Classic film series that brings in funds to host the Youth Art Expo plus gives out art scholarships to local students.
“We believe, just like Margaret Clark did, in the innate creativity of kids from the time they are born,” Weis said.
Brooklyn Purvis, ninth grader from Redlands East Valley High School, won the MCAEEF Special Award, the highest accolade of the expo. For the past three years, she has taken art classes in school.
“I like how you can be very imaginative with art and create whatever you want,” she said.
She likes to work with graphite, pencils and shading, which were the skills she used in her art piece, Mechanical Jellyfish.
“My teacher is very encouraging, she pushed for me to put art in this expo,” Purvis said.
The exhibit showcased 142 student artists from kindergarten through 12th grade. This year, so many 3D art and sculptures were entered into the show that the committee created an extra category just for that.
Winners received a certificate and cash prizes; Best in Show and the MCAEEF Special Award also received a plaque.
“The entries have varied in numbers but they all have been consistently over 100,” said Weis after the event. “Parents and students are now much more aware of what we do.”
“We were very pleased to receive more entries from the ninth through 12th grades this year and the quality of the work especially in the 3D art category,” Weis said.
Co-organizer Suzanne Burke said this was the first year the expo included a digital art piece. She said the judges did research to make sure it was originally made and they all agreed that eleventh-grader Jaron Thomas’ digital art, Ioche, deserved Best in Show.
“Three people offered to buy his piece,” Burke said.
“It’s fun,” said Abigail Rivera, second grader at Sacred Heart Academy who won second place in the kindergarten through second grade category.
“I like to make different colors.” Her painting, House on the Hills, was inspired by a prompt from her teacher. Her mom, Alexandria Rivera, said it is exciting to have an art exhibit since her daughter’s school does not organize one.
Besides the exhibit, hands-on art activities included easel painting, rock painting and little paper critters on clothespins. Outside the tent a group of over ten students painted chalk art on the sidewalk based on the theme for the Redlands Festival of Arts this year, the Blue Boy painting by Thomas Gainsborough.
Eliyza Balbastro from Redlands High School won first prize at the chalk art for her Blue Victor Deciding Who to Wed.
Other winners were Briana Remedios also from Redlands High School, Jennifer Elizalde Nava and Grace White from Redlands East Valley High School. The Chalk Art contest was judged by Annette Weis and David Schepps, who is on the board of the Redlands Festival of Arts.
At the expo, the first-place winner in ninth through 12th grade was Jennifer Elizabeth Nava from Redlands East Valley High School.
“I did a 3D overlapping-underlapping project,” Nava said.
Her art piece, Checkmate, was made with colored pencils and paint. “I’ve been doing art as long as I can remember,” she said, though she did not take art classes until this school year. “[Art] gives me a lot of joy, and also gives me a peace of mind because it takes my mind off everything else I have to do, all of the responsibilities,” she said.
The Youth Art Expo Judges were local photographer Bruce Herwig, Penny McElroy, chair of the University of Redlands art department and artists Jen and Tom Hasselbeck. The judges were impressed with the quality of the work this year, Weis said.
Redlands Art Association provides art classes for kids and adults, and in the exhibit some of their young students displayed artwork, but most entries came from Redlands schools, as well as in the Inland Empire.
The MCAEEF’s Redlands Cinema Classic film series sponsors the Youth Art Expo and the Chalk Art awards, also Stater Bros. Charities and the Redlands Optimists Club sponsor the Youth Art Expo as well as donations from individuals.
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