Since 2019, the Georgia Museum of Art has been fulfilling its statewide outreach obligations in an unusual way: helping to find judges for 4-H competitions. Craven Hudson, at Georgia 4-H and University of Georgia Extension (in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences), approached the museum not because of our vast knowledge of how to raise baby cows (we don’t have much in that arena!) but because 4-H has both Arts and Crafts categories in its Project Achievement competitions.
Those competitions let 4-H’ers pick a project area of interest, do project work in that area throughout the year, then research a specific topic, write a presentation and present it to a judging panel. Competitors range from 4th grade through high school, with the older ages being required to submit a written portfolio for judging, too. Other categories include beef, companion and specialty animals, communications, entomology, pizza, forest resources and wood science, outdoor recreation, performing arts and target sports, among a long list. After competing at the county or club level, students go on to district level competition and then to state and potentially national. The museum has been assisting with recruiting judges for district- and state-level competition. Sometimes museum staff members help out and serve as judges, too.
Hillary Brown, the museum’s director of communications, recently served as a district-level judge in arts and crafts. The presentations took place at Rock Eagle 4-H Center, in Eatonton, Georgia, on a brisk March morning, with hundreds of 4-H’ers walking among the many buildings that make up the center. Brown judged both juniors and seniors in art and craft, experiencing presentations on hand-drawn animation, character design, starting a business with Perler bead crafts, movements in art history, the artist Grant Wood, crocheting, different artistic media and their benefits (complete with a demonstration) and more.
“It was so fun hearing from these students from around the state,” said Brown. “I didn’t really know what to expect because this was my first time as a judge, but the training was both brief and helpful, and I totally enjoyed the experience. I was very impressed with the poise and hard work of many of these young people, who had clearly put a lot of thought and time into their presentations.”
4-H provides training videos for judges to complete before they participate as well as a free lunch. If you’re looking for new ways to volunteer, it might be for you. District-level competitions at Rock Eagle take place around February and March each year, and the state conference is held in Atlanta in July. Interested? Contact the museum at gmoa@uga.edu, and someone will put you in touch with Georgia 4-H about judging.
Authored by:
Museum Staff
