Nearly 400 middle and high school students and their parents from 24 Alabama counties will participate in the fourth annual Trojan Art Day at Troy University on Friday, Feb. 24.

Trojan Art Day offers workshops and demonstrations led by students and faculty in the University’s Department of Art and Design, preceding the District II Visual Arts Achievement Program awards ceremony, the conclusion to an art competition sponsored by the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Trojan Art Day and VAAP are partially funded by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

“Troy University and the Department of Art and Design are proud to continue the tradition, begun in 2005, of hosting the District II Visual Arts Achievement Program exhibition and competition,” said Larry Percy, associate professor of art and design. “This statewide competition, sponsored by the Alabama State Council on the Arts, allows Alabama junior high and high school students to showcase their skills and talents in the visual arts.”

Trojan Art Day activities will get under way at 9 a.m. and conclude with the VAAP Awards ceremony at 1 p.m., taking place in and around Malone Hall on the Troy Campus.

“We are also very excited about the 370-plus junior high and high school students and teachers who will be visiting our campus to help us celebrate our fourth annual Trojan Art Day,” Percy said. “That group will include five smaller schools who have not attended in the past and two of which are brand new art programs begun in rural high schools. That was one of our main desires for this initiative, and I know that it is also a goal of the State Council on the Arts and the VAAP, so we are thrilled that these programs are having an impact on state arts programs.”

The VAAP Competition Exhibition will open in Malone Gallery on Monday, Feb. 20, and works will remain on display through Friday, Feb. 24 at 2 p.m.

District II includes schools from Autauga, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Clay, Coffee, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Dallas, Elmore, Geneva, Henry, Houston, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery, Pike, Russell, Randolph and Tallapoosa Counties.