Photo by Jenny Kirk Minneota student Jersey Stensrud, left, and Yellow Medicine East student Emma Keller play a game of marbles — after making their own to take home — during the 2017 Conference for Young Artists on Thursday.

MARSHALL — If it wasn’t so close to Halloween, Kallie Norris’ zombie face might have looked a little out of place as the Lake Benton Elementary student engaged in another session at the 24th annual Conference for Young Artists on Thursday at Southwest Minnesota State University.

But there were definitely plenty of other realistically-scary zombies and other unique characters which were brought to life that she completely fit in.

Coordinated by Southwest West Central Service Cooperative, the Young Artists Conference is meant to provide hands-on, creative opportunities — ones that might spark interests and develop hidden talents — for students from around the region.

“It was fun and creepy and very weird for me, but I had fun,” Norris said.

Approximately 750 participants — including students from Canby, Dawson-Boyd, Ivanhoe, Lakeview, Minneota, Murray County Central, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, Wabasso and Yellow Medicine East in addition to Lake Benton — took part in this year’s conference.

“We had one mirror per two people,” Norris said. “One side was like a big head and one was like a regular mirror, so me and (Kennedy Woodbury from Prairie Elementary in Worthington) swapped it to the other side, which was regular, so then it would be easier for both of us to fit our heads and then we could see to put our makeup on.”

Norris then revealed the process for putting on the zombie makeup.

“First we put this lotion on, which would help smear it and make it lighter color,” she said. “After that, we got some silver makeup and put it on our faces. Then it was the brown — it’s called wolf brown. The green teeth — that was last — just like the blood.”

Along with Zombie 101 presenter Emily Firman Pieper, there were 28 other presenters who offered a wide variety of artistic sessions for the K-8 students in attendance.

“The Origami Book is new,” event organizer Andrea Anderson said. “Tammy Grubbs does a different one every year — she’s doing Abstract Emoji Painting Party this year. Ashley Lucas has also been here before, but the Chalk Pastel Mystery Masterpiece is a new one. Zentangle (presented by Ashley Honetschlager) is amazing. It’s kind of like those adult coloring books, where they’re all tangled in. And we haven’t done rainsticks in a long time, so we brought that back.”

Cody Michel gave students the opportunity to make rainsticks at his Legend of the Rainstick session.

“Years ago, rainsticks were constructed using cactuses,” Michel said. “What they do is cut the skinnier limbs off the cactus and then take the thorns, turn them around and stick them back through before filling it with gravel and stuff. Then they’d let it dry out.”

Michel, a naturalist from Prairie Ecology Bus Center, explained that a lot of native tribes and Native Americans created and used rainsticks.

“They were pretty common,” he said. “They believed that by using them in ceremony, they could sometimes bring on the rain.”

Norris was among those who made their own rainstick, as did fellow schoolmates Tristan Hudson and Zoe Bekker, Minneota’s Kiera Korman and MCC’s Royalle Siedschlag.

“It’s actually kind of hard, especially with the chicken wire,” Norris said. “It’s pokey.”

The Marble Mania session also attracted a lot of participants as presenter Alisha Paplow showed the young generation of children how to play the activity that has been around for decades.

“It was fun,” Minneota third-grader Jersey Stensrud said. “I like making the marbles and painting them.”

Stensrud paired up with YME student Emma Keller to play two different marble games.

“I like playing Ringer the best,” Stensrud said.

Stensrud also attended a pottery session.

“It was fun,” she said. “We made our own pot or bowl. I think (the conference) is fun. I’d like to come back again.”

Holy Redeemer School seventh-grader Joshua Bauer had attended the conference before.

“I’ve been here many times,” he said.

This year, Bauer signed up for Scott Hanson’s Coban session, where students use the 3M Coban self-adherent wrap to create interesting projects.

“I made a walking stick,” Bauer said. “It’s very fun. I also did Origami and an abstract art game. (The Coban session) was the best one because you can pretty much make anything out of it.”

Lake Benton’s Zoey Greer and Eden Gladis were also among those who made unique walking sticks.

“Along with the kids from different schools, there are also parents who brought their children to the conference,” Anderson said. “Everything is going wonderful.”

Along with Canby’s Rylin Larsen, RTR students Brooklyn Cauwels, Cari Baune and Julia Nilles let loose their creativity in Carrie Hartman’s Drawing a Picture Book Moment session, while Marshall’s Isaiah Brusven and Minneota’s Sam Skorczewski worked on their illusionist skills at Jett Skrien’s Mystifying Magic session.

“Jett is a high school student who is working with Reza (Borchardt, one of the most sought-after entertainers in the touring illusion industry today), who we had as our keynote a few years ago,” Anderson said. “Reza is mentoring Jett.”

Skrien demonstrated a number of magic tricks, including the false transfer of a sponge ball. He also gave the students some advice.

“Never explain how a trick is done,” he said. “The mystery and power is gone. And never tell the audience what is going to happen ahead of time. If they aren’t expecting anything, they are more likely to be fooled.”