“Student Art Awards from the California State Fair”

Either the awards are not large enough, or their talent is not great enough, to encourage and sustain those art students who win prizes in State Fair competitions. Very few of the winners are heard of even five years after taking their prizes. The Sacramento show covers a 14-year period, and of the purchase prize winners, only Beth van Hoesen (drawing, 1951), Nathan Oliviera (print, 1952), Jack Zajac (oil, 1951) and D. Faralla (oil, 1952) are heard from in any major capacity today. The question is raised: Should the State Fair give less and larger prizes in the student division?

––E. M. Polley