An artists’ reception tonight will celebrate the opening of the 16th annual Student Exhibition at College of the Canyons Art Gallery.

The exhibition, which featuers a wide array of student work spanning the traditional visual arts categories, will serve as the semester’s culminating event for many COC art students.

This year’s exhibition will also play an important role in gallery director Larry Hurst’s initiative to form the College of the Canyons Student Art Collection.

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Once established, the COC Student Art Collection project would allow students to submit their artworks for competition in the annual “Student Exhibition” held each spring semester — with four winners eventually selected for inclusion in the collection and awarded cash prizes.

The chosen works would then become part of a permanent visual art collection, spanning all disciplines, to eventually be displayed at the college’s Valencia and Canyon Country campuses.

“This is an exciting year for the Art Gallery as we begin to build our permanent student art collection,” Hurst said. “Students seem eager to participate in this project, so we expect this exhibition to offer some very high-quality pieces to choose from.”

The “16th Annual COC Student Exhibition” will run through Saturday, May 14. An artist’s reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. tonight in the college’s Art Gallery, located on the Valencia campus.

In addition, the college will host the first annual Student Art Collection Awards, from 5 to 7 p.m., Thursday, May 12, in the Art Gallery.

The College of the Canyons Art Gallery is open 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Visitors unable to visit the gallery during these hours are welcome to call (661) 362-3612 to make a viewing appointment. All gallery exhibitions and related events are free and open to the public.

For more information about the College of the Canyons Art Gallery or the college’s Student Art Collection, please visit www.canyons.edu/artgallery/.