Freshman Elena Metzger won grand champion of the art fair, second place in photography and art and first place in multimedia at the Da Vinci Fest.

Metzger started art when she was around five years old. She started to do art with her grandma; they used to draw and do a whole lot of different art related activities and opportunities together, Metzger explained

Metzger really excelled in art when she got into middle school because of all the opportunities that were there given to her at school.

“I really got into art competitively about three to four years ago,” Metzger said.

She took advantage of the opportunities that she had and started to enter competitions.

She entered into competitions like the State Fair, the Da Vinci Fest, etc, “just more of doing larger projects,” Metzger explained.

Her favorite thing to do is to take one thing and create into another that no one would except her to do.

“I really like taking two dimensional images and creating 3d sculptures out of it. The project I did at the Da Vinci fest was a 3D interpretation of a monster,” Metzger said.

Elena is also talented in different ways in the classroom because she loves to go above and beyond with her projects and assignments.

“She really challenges herself, she does not only do the assignment that I give out, she excels in it. For example, the first assignment I gave out we had to make a ring and they had to put at least one piece on it. While other students only put one or two on, Elena put nine,” art teacher Peter Koltun explained.

Metzger is also a good student in the classroom and a good person outside of just her art.

“Elena is also a very independent student and really likes to challenge herself,” Koltun explained.

Metzger loves to do things outside of art as well, she is also interested in science and things like which makes her a whole person and not just one sided.

“It is another interesting balance that some of us do not have,” Koltun explained.

Metzger likes to show off her skills, but she is also very humble when it comes to her work. People admire her when they watch her work and create things no one else could.

“Elena amazes me because she has a real vision of what she wants to create, like she has an aesthetic in her mind,” Koltun said.

The Da Vinci Fest is run by two divisions of age based groups. One is junior (grade 6-8) or senior (grade 9-12). For the art fair there are 6 categories: Mixed Media, Sculpture and Ceramics, Pastels and Drawing, Painting, Fiber Arts and Jewelry, Photography and Digital Art.

The highest score is awarded to the Grand Champion in all groups for the art fair. Metzger won the highest score out of all age based groups and categories in the art fair. The rubric for the art fair that she excelled in were, technical quality, artist’s statement (verbal and written), thought provoking, engaging, and voice, explained Da Vinci Fest organizer, Sara Martin.

A lot of people attended the Da Vinci Fest thing year and it had a huge turn out.

“This year we had more than 1,600 people participate in the Da Vinci Fest, including students, volunteers, exhibitors, vendors and the public attendees. We had 310 students enter some sort of project into the Da Vinci Fest this year. Meaning between, the Art Fair, Science Fair, Upcycling Fair, Film Fest, One Act Plays, and Science Challenges, there were 310 6-12th grade students who participated in the 2024 Da Vinci Fest. Many more students volunteered, showed off the amazing things they were working on with their clubs in the exhibitor fairs or had art hanging in the Elementary art hallway,” Martin explained.