For some artists at the annual Urbana High School Art Show, creating a masterpiece is an instant spark that takes just fifteen minutes. For others, it is a grueling, two-week test of patience where a single mistake can alter the entire piece. The 2026 showcase brought these exact worlds together, highlighting a massive range of student talent, dedication, and first-place victories across multiple mediums.
The exhibition highlighted how diverse the school’s creative talent has become, with judges awarding top honors to projects that ranged from everyday photography to complex three-dimensional forms.
A Quick Snap of Inspiration
In the photography category, Tahlia Ayerdiz captured first place with a piece that came together surprisingly fast, spending only about 15 to 30 minutes total on the project. Ayerdiz proved that great art doesn’t always require weeks of labor, drawing her inspiration from everyday items found right around her house. “Honestly I thought it would be fun and look cute,” Ayerdiz shared, noting that the hardest part of the process was simply getting the final image to look exactly the way she envisioned it.
Shaping First Place
On the opposite end of the time spectrum, Dominique Neff spent “1.2 weeks of the making and the glazing” to meticulously craft a first-place ceramics piece. The process required balancing both the physical building of the form and the detailed glazing process to bring the vision to life. Neff focused heavily on the structure of the work, noting she “started the form and wanted to make it colorful and creative” as the initial “creativity and inspiration for color… came to me and I liked what I saw.”
The High Stakes of Scratch Art
Also spending “1.2 weeks” on a winning project was Alison Hoffacket, who took home first place in her category by stepping completely out of her comfort zone. Though Hoffacket has been drawing since the sixth grade, she had never attempted scratch art before, which left zero room for error compared to pencil sketching. “The only personal experience I have I’ve been drawing since 6th grade but I’ve never done scratch art before,” Hoffacket explained. The medium proved challenging because “everything you do is permanent you cant shape any mistakes unless you try to shape it back into the art.” Ultimately, her hard work and focus resulted in a stunning depiction of an owl, a piece inspired “probably my grandm
a because she really likes owls.”
Whether dealing with the quick precision of a camera lens, the patience of molding clay, or the high-stakes permanent lines of a scratchboard, Urbana High’s 2026 showcase proved that the schools artists aren’t afraid of a challenge– or a little hard work for the people they care about.
