The Religious Education Visualizing Learning Student Art Competition Celebrates Artwork Created by Non-Art Majors at BYU. Ashley Call’s “Goldfinches at Calvary” won Best in Show.
This February, the College of Religious Education hosted the annual Religious Education Visualizing Learning Student Art Competition. The event commemorates students for incorporating art into their faith and learning experience.
Students enrolled in courses with religious education instructors can submit artwork inspired by class themes. The competition typically receives about 100 submissions, with 10 winners being chosen by a committee of BYU faculty and staff.
The winning students attend a banquet, receive monetary awards, present artwork at a symposium and have their pieces temporarily exhibited in BYU’s Museum of Art (MOA).The symposium is open to the public, allowing all to attend and learn about faith expressed through art.
Krystal Pierce is a professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture and the chair of the committee overseeing the competition. Pierce believes creating and engaging with religious artwork can be intellectually enriching for students.
“I hope that students and attendees can appreciate and celebrate the amazing creative talents of the artists but also feel inspired by each student's statement about their artwork,” Pierce said. “Statements include aspects of their creative process, religious symbolism and what the artwork personally means to them.”
This year's prize-winning works include ceramics, paper collage, crochet tapestry, acrylic and oil paintings, photography, wood sculpture and digital artwork.
Ashley Call, a senior in the wildlife and wildlands conservation program, won Best in Show for her oil painting “Goldfinches at Calvary.”
“Call created a beautiful oil painting depicting goldfinches perched upon the Syrian thistle crowning Christ's head at Calvary,” Pierce said. “She was able to masterfully combine her knowledge of wildlife with her testimony of the Savior and His Atonement in her artwork.”
When Call first came to BYU, she considered the university's illustration program before discovering her passion for wildlife and wildlands conservation. Now, she looks for ways to combine art with her major.
While taking the course Christ and the Everlasting Gospel, Call had the opportunity to create a final project centered on Christ. She decided it was the perfect opportunity to combine painting, faith and nature.
“I chose to focus on the Crucifixion of Christ. My major involves a lot of plants and animals, and I have always loved birds,” Call said. “I chose the European Goldfinch and the Syrian Goldfinch because they coexist together.”
The experience was spiritually uplifting and intellectually enriching for Call, who said presenting her work increased her confidence in the spotlight. She also gained experience using oil paints, a process that required trial and error.
“I started oil painting about six months beforehand and was still experimenting with my style,” Call said. “It is cool to see how much I have grown.”
The annual symposium is free and open to the public. The artwork was temporarily displayed at the MOA before being moved to the first floor of the Joseph Smith Building, where it will be showcased until April 2027.
Visit the Joseph Smith Building to view the award-winning art, and don’t miss the opportunity to enter or attend next year's competition.