Ask any hard-working art teacher in communities large and small about the future of funding for the arts and their response is likely to be, "Don't get me started!"

That precarious situation aside, anytime a group of students work together creatively in an effort to procure funding for their arts program it is an amazing and productive experience for all involved.

Lennox and Parker High Schools' art students have landed in the top 50 finalists of the Vans Custom Culture Art Competition! Over 300 schools around the country competed this year.

The schools' art departments were given four pairs of blank white Vans shoes and asked to create four designs based on Vans' "Off the Wall" lifestyle categories: action sports, arts, music and local flavor.

In June five schools will be rewarded with an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles where celebrity judges will pick the winner. The winning school receives $50,000 for their art program and the four runner-up schools receive $4,000 for theirs.

This is where the rest of us come in to support this major accomplishment by two high schools in a couple of small South Dakota towns. You are invited and encouraged to vote for Lennox and/or for Parker at Vans Custom Culture website. You can vote everyday through May 11, 2017. So please support our amazing South Dakota high school artists!

The place to vote again is customeculture.vans.com!

Here are more pictures of the Lennox art students' efforts:


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