The Detroit Institute of Arts hosted its third annual Wayne County High School Art Exhibition from June 21 to July 21, 2024. The exhibition featured 80 works by Wayne County High School art students
The house in Bloomfield Hills features original art by Cranbrook artists and educators
Cranbrook faculty and students transformed the lower level of this Bloomfield Hills home with their personal installations.
Tanya Wildt, Detroit Free Press
For many high school students, taking an elective course can make a big difference in their lives. For Madison Bullock, a beginner’s jewelry arts class was just the thing and her work has been exhibited throughout Detroit.
“When I came to Wayne, the art department was already very well developed,” said Bullock, 18, who graduated from Wayne Memorial High School in June. “They had classes in ceramics, digital art and jewelry design. I just jumped in and loved it.”
Over the summer, art lovers in Detroit had the chance to see what a class can do for a young artist. Bullock was one of more than 50 artists whose art was featured in the Detroit Institute of Arts’ third annual Wayne County High School Art Exhibit. The exhibit featured 81 works by high school students from across Wayne County and ran from June 21 to July 21. After that, the exhibit moved to the Guardian Building in downtown Detroit and is on display through Sunday.
The exhibition includes paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, mixed media, collages, small sculptures and jewelry. Bullock’s necklace in the exhibition, titled “Feed the Flies,” contains one word that is clearly legible: “rot.” This is a reference to the Lansing punk band Rot Knot.
“For the beads, I looked for pages to cut out that were really colorful and had a lot of chaos because of the covers of her singles,” said Bullock, who lives in Romulus. “In particular, her song ‘Feed the Flies,’ which I named it after, was very colorful.”
Bullock immediately wanted to incorporate art into her school life after transferring to Wayne Memorial High School for her penultimate year of high school. By the end of her senior year, she was taking five art classes a day.
Bullock plans to study philosophy at Henry Ford College in the fall and continue the jewelry business she started this year.
“I have a lot of fun with it,” Bullock said. “I make wire necklaces and bracelets and have made Taylor Swift friendship bracelets for my friends. If I can make people happy by doing what I know I can do, I might as well keep doing it.”
Erika Hanna, Bullock’s teacher at Wayne Memorial, said Bullock was productive.
“Madison has done a really great job in my class and always outdoes herself,” Hanna said. “When I have an assignment, she always does two or three of each task instead of just one because she works so efficiently and quickly.”
Start a conversation
Madelane Martinez has created a paper-graphite piece titled “Is This What I Am?” in which she hopes to shed light on racism.
“There are so many stereotypes and labels that are often attached to Hispanics, Latinos and Latinas, and often times it is not talked about enough,” said Martinez, who graduated from Cass Technical High School in June. “Since my parents experience a lot of racism in the country, I wanted to do something that would bring more attention to an issue that is not talked about enough in my community and at my school.”
Martinez plans to attend the College for Creative Studies in the fall, where she will study studio art. She estimates that her exhibited work took her more than 36 hours to complete.
“It was the first piece that big that I’d done, and it was definitely twice the size of my usual pieces. I spent the whole day in my room just drawing, and eventually I finished it,” she said.
The Detroit Institute of Arts Wayne County High School Art Show has been held annually since 2022. Typically, 200-400 high school artworks are submitted each year.
“We hope that all Wayne County high school students will submit their work to be part of the exhibit,” said Ani Garabedian, manager of community engagement programs at the DIA. “The submission deadline will reopen in spring 2025. More details will be available on the DIA website in the new year.”
Julia Roeder, a Free Press trainee, will be a senior at Grosse Pointe South High School in the fall.
