Thursday, March 14, 2024 | 5:30 a.m.
Las Vegas community members will have the opportunity to see their artwork displayed on the Exosphere — the viral outer shell of the Sphere that has gained worldwide attention over the past year for its repertoire of designs, including advertisements for movies, grinning emojis, giant basketballs and more.
The event and entertainment venue, which opened in September near the Strip, announced a partnership with the Clark County School District and UNLV on Thursday that will allow local students from fourth grade through college to compete in the “Sphere XO Student Design Challenge” for a chance to have their art displayed on the Exosphere. It’s the first time the Sphere has sought local art for its displays.
“Sphere is more than a venue — it is a new entertainment medium uniting art and science to broaden our understanding of what’s possible through artistic and technological innovation,” said Jim Dolan, executive chairman and CEO of Sphere Entertainment in a statement. “Sphere XO Student Design Challenge is an opportunity for us to engage Las Vegas students by introducing them to Sphere’s technology, and meaningfully give back to the community by inspiring its future.”
Officials said the design challenge will select eight students from a pool of more than 100,000 to have their creation cast on the world’s largest LED screen, which is made up of 1.2 million LED pucks.
The inaugural program will launch this month and culminate on the Fourth of July, when the eight winning works will be displayed on the Exosphere to celebrate its first anniversary, the release said.
Sixty high school and college students — 30 from CCSD and 30 from the UNLV Colleges of Fine Arts, Architecture, Film, Engineering and Mathematics — will be selected to participate by their administrators, based on a “demonstrated passion for art and digital design,” they said in a news release.
They will compete using a VR headset and custom design tools from the Sphere — as well as hands-on tutorials from Sphere designers — to create their submissions.
“The intersection of art and technology is a consistent throughline in our curriculum and a crucial priority for students pursuing careers in these rapidly evolving industries,” said Nancy Uscher, dean of UNLV College of Fine Arts in a statement. “Sphere serves as a real-world example of innovation in art, and we’re thrilled that our student body has the chance to become active participants in this cultural achievement.”
Meanwhile, 125,000 students between fourth and eighth grade in CCSD will be invited to participate by illustrating or painting a 2D drawing of the Sphere, a template of which will be provided.
School administrators will first narrow the number of submissions to 300, one from each elementary and middle school, then narrow it further to 60 — 30 from the elementary schools and 30 from the middle schools.
The final selection of elementary school, middle school, high school and college submissions — totaling 120 — will be digitized and posted on the Sphere website in late May, so the public can cast their votes in favor of their preferred artwork.
The public vote will determine four winners — one from elementary school, one from middle school, one from high school and one from UNLV — and the remaining four winners will be selected by Exosphere artists, including Refik Anadol and Michela Picchi, who will also select one each from elementary school, middle school, high school and college.
“I have a deep understanding and appreciation for the determination required by young artists who hope to break into the art world — this is an excellent opportunity to showcase their work to a global audience,” Anadol said in a statement. “I am honored to participate and support these students at the beginning of their journey toward what I hope will be productive careers in the arts.”
The winners from high school and college will receive $10,000 educational scholarships from the Sphere, while the elementary- and middle-school students will earn their schools’ art programs $10,000 donations from the company, in addition to tickets for their entire school to attend The Sphere Experience.
“Arts education in public schools is more vital than ever,” Brenda Larsen-Mitchell, CCSD’s interim superintendent, said in a statement. “We are fortunate to not only have this next-generation canvas in Las Vegas but also to have Sphere’s commitment to using it in support of the local community. With Sphere’s XO Student Design Challenge, our students get to explore innovation through art via hands-on learning.”
Uscher said Thursday there was already a “buzz” at UNLV about the Sphere XO Student Design Challenge, and she’s grateful to Sphere for providing local students with the opportunity to compete.
“This is so new, and so it speaks so much to the future,” she told the Sun. “It’s just really an incredible opportunity because we talk so much about innovation, and about what it means to have an impact and be original, and this is it.”
The competition is going to have a tremendous impact, Uscher predicted.
“We really do need to impart to our students — both, I think, high school and college — that we need to think in a way that really integrates science, art and technology,” she said. “So I think the unique opportunities that specifically serve Las Vegas is that our high school students, and our college students, get a first-hand experiential opportunity to see those different fields as different disciplines working together, because in their life and the workforce, that’s really how it’s going to be.”
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