Each year, a young artist is chosen from the Community Student Art Exhibitions sponsored by Berrien RESA, Krasl Art Center and the Box Factory for the Arts as the Emerging Artist. This year’s award winner is Taylor Hartley, St. Joseph High School. Taylor won the Emerging Artist Award Inspired by the Life of Jean Gast in this year’s high school show for her video “The End.” The award was established at the Berrien Community Foundation by the family of the late Jean Gast.

Art was very important to Jean Gast who served as a board member for the Krasl Art Center and one of the first board members for the Box Factory for the Arts . She was instrumental in envisioning the transformation of the Box Factory as well as helping to secure funding.

Taylor wrote the following letter to Jean Gast’s family to thank them for receiving the award.

To Jean’s family, I would first like to start off by saying how thankful, grateful, and honored I am to have received this money. Not only will it immensely help my financial situation, but it will also ensure that I can continue to incorporate art into my future. Although I am not one hundred percent sure on what path I want to take in school, I know for certain I want to include aspects of art, whether it is through any type of design media or film. My current plan is to attend two years of community college, where I will take general education classes and also take the time to decide what I really want to do. The money that this award provided will allow me to take art courses on the side where I will be able to continue to grow my skills and feel secure when it comes time to decide my path and further study them. Once again, thank you very much for this opportunity, I cannot wait to see what the future holds. 

Best Regards,
Taylor Hartley 

To view Taylor Harley’s award winning video “The End” please go to https://communitystudentartexhibition.smugmug.com/High-School-Video/i-PvzBkMP/A