Photo by Samantha Davis. Students from several area schools collaborate with one another in art classes during the annual Young Artists Conference at Southwest Minnesota State University on Wednesday.

MARSHALL — Nearly 700 students and chaperones from 16 area school districts gathered at Southwest Minnesota State University on Wednesday to get creative and explore numerous creative outlets at the 31st annual Young Artists Conference hosted by the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative (SWWC).

“The mission for this is to bring kids and artists together,” SWWC Student Enrichment Coordinator Andrea Anderson said. “They (students) can learn different things that maybe they don’t necessarily learn in the classroom or at home. It’s to give them a touch or a little experience to see if they’re interested in (art) for future endeavors.”

The conference welcomed kindergarten through eighth grade students from 18 total schools, including Dawson-Boyd, Lynd, Murray County Central, Minneota, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, Canby and more.

Students attended three sessions throughout the day, partaking in a range of creative classes like pottery, painting, sculpture, paper quilting, drawing, theatre, costume design and more.

“They get to dibble and dabble in different things to see what they’re good at and what they might be interested in,” Anderson said. “We’ve had kids that have come here and they pursue art in the future … They start here, they get a little tidbit of what’s happening, try things out and try something new.”

The event is sponsored by the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, and also brings in a number of local artists to help put on the sessions and work with the students.

Annelle Guillemard, an art teacher at KMS Murdock Elementary School, brought a group of her students to the conference.

“I like that the kids get to be open and influenced by a lot of different art. It’s just a good day to be away from school and get to enjoy each other’s company,” Guillemard said. “It’s a wonderful event.”

Guillemard has attended the event for now 21 years, and can attest to the lasting impact it can have on the students.

“The kids graduate, and I still see some of them, and they’ll come out and go, ‘Oh, I just loved going to this [Young Artists Conference],'” Guillemard said. “This is a core memory for them.”

With several hundred participants and a day the students look forward to, Anderson works through the year on gathering presenters to ensure the day is set up for success.

“It’s a process of setting dates and then contacting presenters to see if they can work with kids and want to share their knowledge,” Anderson said. “We try to get as many local artists as we can.”

As students ran off to their sessions filled with eagerness, they could be seen filling the hallways of SMSU along with the college students.

Walking through the buildings that held the classes, students participated in making sculptures with clay, trying to draw or paint one another, taking photos with Halloween skeletons they decorated, or even getting a behind the scenes look of SMSU’s theatre in the Fine Arts building.

“I think the greatest thing about art is an eraser. If we make something we don’t like, we can erase it and do it again,” John Sterner, an art teacher at Lakeview Public School and SMSU, said. “That’s the thing about art, we can always try again … That’s character, and that’s what art is. Art is about making mistakes and trying again.”

Sterner teaches first to 12th grade art at Lakeview, and ceramics and art education for elementary teachers at SMSU. He is a local artist who prides his work on his mother’s Lakota heritage. He currently has 12 public sculptures, including the mustang at the entrance of SMSU and the Whitney Statue at Liberty Park.

“We’re going to ask you, as students, to open your mind to learn something new today,” Sterner said, who talked to the entire group before breaking off into sessions in the SMSU R/A facility. “The biggest thing about art is that you allow your brain to just be open to making things … Don’t be afraid to make something. Make lots of things.”

Sterner also held the clay caricatures class, where students worked with modeling clay to create figures from imagination.

“One of the things I want to leave you with here and in this moment right now, is to always be open. Always be open to trying these things,” Sterner said. “Always be open to taking advantage of the opportunity that you have with that pencil. Make those marks, and if the marks aren’t right, you can just turn the page.”

There also was a book fair held throughout the event.

SWWC will next host the Conference for Young Writers on Jan. 7, which will bring authors and students together to explore different forms of writing and create stories for students in grades third through eighth.