Nicole Mercado-Vega of Hampstead, NH, received the Presidential Purchase Award during the opening reception of Northern Essex Community College’s Annual Student Art Show for her piece titled “Come In and Play”.

A charcoal drawing titled “Come In and Play,” by Nicole Mercado-Vega of Hampstead, NH, received the Presidential Purchase Award during the opening reception of Northern Essex Community College’s Annual Student Art Show on display through Monday, May 14, in the Linda Hummel-Shea ArtSpace in the Harold Bentley Library on the Haverhill campus, 100 Elliott St.

The drawing was selected from nearly 125 pieces of art created by art and design students from throughout Southern New Hampshire and the Merrimack Valley. The judge was Brian Alves, associate professor and chairperson of art & design at Salem State University.

Each semester Northern Essex art & design faculty select works from their classes that they would like to submit for the jurying. These works are submitted for jurying by a juror from outside NECC. The juror chooses the works that he or she feels are the best from each discipline represented which could include fine art, graphic design, photography, film/video, and interactive media. The juror then chooses the President’s Purchase Award and three honorable mentions.

Winners of the 2018 NECC Student Art Show are from (left to right) Briar Quinn, Nicole Mercado-Vega, Bill Heineman, vice president of academic and student affairs, Rachele Cerasuolo, and Rihanna Saint-Laurent.

Bill Heineman, vice president of academic and student affairs, presented the winners with their awards. In addition to the Presidential Purchase Award; the three honorable mentions were presented to Rachele Cerasuolo of Plaistow, NH, who submitted a three-dimensional foundations piece titled “Fiery Solace”; Rihanna Saint-Laurent of Methuen, who submitted an advanced photography piece titled “Ice Number”; and Briar Quinn of Merrimac, who submitted her work from the humanities honors seminar “Monsters in Art & Literature” titled “Prosopo Kleftis = Face Stealer”.

This year’s show features drawings, paintings, graphic design, photographs, video films, illustrations and three-dimensional work from students in a range of classes in the Art & Design program. Northern Essex Department of Art & Design offers many courses in fine art and design leading to an Associate Degree in General Studies: Art & Design.

Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For additional information, contact Marc Mannheimer, gallery coordinator at mmannheimer@necc.mass.edu