Student shoe design could win $50K for South Pointe High; your vote will help
Students at South Pointe High School have been called out for painting their shoes. And $50,000 is at stake.
The students are not in trouble for defacing footwear. More than a dozen art students have spent months creating an art project using Vans shoes. The South Pointe students have made it to the top 50 from a field of 3,000 schools nationwide to compete for $50,000, said South Pointe visual arts teacher Ashley Beard.
The Vans Custom Culture project encourages creativity through art and design, and seeks to bring attention to dwindling arts budgets, according to the Vans project website.
The company sent the schools four plain white pairs of shoes and art students created designs to draw and paint on the footwear, Beard said. Sixty students started the design concepts, she said, and 12-15 students completed the artwork.
The school is one of the top 10 in the Southeast region. If the students win the regional competition, the school wins $4,000 and will be one of five schools to compete in the finals, Beard said.
The money would go to boost the arts program, which could go to purchase potters wheels and a glass fusion kiln for a new ceramics and sculpture class, she said.
“It’s a real experience for the kids,” she said. “They are actually designing something tangible and real.”
The designs encompass art, music, local flavor and board sports.
South Pointe art students designed the shoes with skulls and incorporated the South Carolina logo, the state bird and flower, a boy on the left shoe spray painting the right shoe and a pair of shoes connected by a skateboard ramp.
“We really got to display our skills not only to just our school, but on a community level as well and show the people of Rock Hill, South Carolina, and even further than that, hopefully...,” said senior Candace Otten, 18.
The public must vote for the students online to help them win the top prize. Voters can cast ballots every day until the May 10 deadline.
Tracy Kimball: 803-329-4072
Want to vote?
Go online to customculture.vans.com. South Pointe is in the southeast region.
This story was originally published May 4, 2017 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Student shoe design could win $50K for South Pointe High; your vote will help."