Home is where the art is

The mood was festive as about 800 Las Vegas Valley elementary schoolchildren and their parents filled an upstairs ballroom in The Venetian to view a vast collection of children's artwork, which hung on makeshift walls at the room's entrance. Waiters in white gloves carried trays of assorted cookies for guests to munch upon as they discussed the finer points of the exhibit.

It was the Nevada Housing Division's 17th Where I Live art contest's Dec. 11 art reception and awards ceremony, which featured holiday songs by the Cartwright Elementary School choir and speeches from local dignitaries.

Parents snapped smartphone photos of their children standing in front of their drawings that showed where they live, or would like to live, in the Las Vegas Valley. Several drawings been selected to be featured in the contest's annual calendar.

Sunrise Acres Elementary School fifth-grader Fernando Farfan stood in front of his piece, which won second place in the contest. He said his drawing was like a postcard that showed his family's house and car on one panel of and the desert with palm trees, mountains and city buildings on the other.

"I'm very serious about my art," he said. "I want to be an architect."

Nevada Housing Division Public Information Officer Jean Norton, who organizes the event, said this year's entries were some of the strongest pieces of student art she has ever seen.

"These were very bold, creative drawings by these kids," she said.

It was also one of the biggest showings. This year saw more than 4,600 entries from 48 area elementary schools, a record for the annual event, Norton said.

"We've doubled the size of the exhibition from last year," she said.

This is the second year Yuliana Aguirre, another fifth-grader at Sunrise Acres Elementary School, has placed in the contest. She took the Judge's Choice Award for her self-portrait, which shows a girl painting her home from the front yard. It is featured on the cover of the 2013 calendar.

Seeming to be a bit shy, Yuliana pointed to the image of the girl with hair as long and brown as her own and said, "That's me."

The contest's first-place award went to Angel Flores, a fifth-grade student at Treem Elementary School. Her painting showed an image of her aunt's dog looking at itself from a car's side mirror with a home in the background.

"It's my first time winning anything like this," she said.

Her aunt Anita Gail Trower-Coll is the art teacher at Sunrise Acres Elementary School. The educator spent some time with her students and her niece to prepare them for the expected onslaught of media attention. The students each wrote down answers to common questions and practiced interviewing each other. The media training came in handy as the youngsters were peppered with questions from a few community reporters, teachers and parents.

"This is a great opportunity for our students," she said.

Britta Reber, a second-grader at Lincoln Elementary School, stood by her father, the school's art teacher, Matt Reber, showing her drawing of a bright orange abode.

"I like bright colors," she said.

Reber's students have entered the contest for years. He said it was a "complete surprise" that his daughter won this year.

Art teachers prepare their students' work and submit it to the Nevada Housing Division's offices. Norton selects a panel of judges from the community to select the pieces to be featured in the upcoming year's calendar. This year they included retired Clark County School District art teachers Jan Butler and Vija Hamilton, former Las Vegas Review-Journal real estate editor Carmel Hopkins and the Review-Journal's Las Vegas New Homes Guide Publisher Claire DeJesus.

During the ceremony, 21 student artists took the stage to receive their prizes and awards. Sonia Joya, the Southern Nevada director of Gov. Brian Sandoval's office, addressed the audience in Spanish and English. She presented the children with certificates and gold coins minted in Nevada mines. The students also received gift cards for art supplies.

Cox Communications-Las Vegas Vice President of Public and Government Affairs Steve Schorr served as the master of ceremonies for the evening. Barbara Good, coordinator of the elementary fine arts program for Clark County schools, gave the keynote address.

Other speakers included Director of Community Development for the Las Vegas Sands Corp. Napoleon McCallum, Review-Journal Publisher Bob Brown, Assistant Director of the CCSD-Community Partnership Program Judy Myers and Nevada Housing Division Chief Financial Officer Hilary Lopez.

Each year The Venetian hosts the reception. This year several homebuilders joined longtime supporter Pardee Homes as sponsors. They included D.R. Horton, Harmony Homes, Distinctive Homes, Lennar and Woodside Homes. Summerlin was also a sponsor this year. Other sponsors included CCSD, Nevada State Bank, Bank of America, Blick Art Materials, Cox Communications, El Tiempo, View, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Southwest Gas Corp.