Annual District Art Show Features Color and Imagination
Pendleton School District organized another successful District Art Show, May 5-7, 2026 at the Pendleton Convention Center. The event began with a community opening night, followed by two days of art viewing by students, their families, and the public.
Abbey Prevot, Art Teacher at Pendleton High School, coordinates the show with John Bradt, Media/Tech Teacher at Sunridge Middle School, and Julie Murphy, new Art Teacher at Sunridge Middle School. Every student in the district creates a piece of art in their class, and it is displayed at the show. Pieces include paintings, sculptures, dioramas, masks, and more.
Prevot said while the show is a lot of work, the team is getting better at organizing and setting up. They had nine PHS students help this year. The 2026 show featured more three-dimensional artwork. SMS’s new art teacher, Murphy, had all her middle school students embrace a donut theme, with watercolors and sculptures of the tasty treat.
A new idea this year for the show was to have district elementary students and high school students partner to create art. Two classes of elementary students at McKay Creek Elementary created monsters and drew pictures of them. Then, those pictures were given to students in Art II at Pendleton High School, who made clay sculptures of the monsters. At the art show, the paintings and sculptures were displayed together. “The PHS students loved seeing the younger kids’ drawings. Having something really creative given to you and then creating something 3-D from that imagination was challenging and really fun. We are very excited to hand those sculptures back to the elementary students,” Prevot said.
Pendleton School District thanks the Education Foundation of Pendleton for funding the art show, Altrusa of Pendleton for giving out free books on opening night, and the Oregon East Symphony (OES) Youth Chamber Collective, who performed on opening night.
“The art show is one of the only community events where all PSD schools participate, so it’s a great way to celebrate creativity together,” Prevot said.
