Montana Meth Project: Winners of Paint the State art contest announced

September 21, 2015 - Missulian

The Montana Meth Project has announced the winners of its Paint the State contest, awarding six teenagers a total of $30,000 for creating pieces of public artwork with an anti-methamphetamine message.

The contest started in June, when teens across the state were invited to submit their original artwork in one of three categories: video, outdoor/monument/sculpture or artwork/photography.

A panel that included actor J.K. Simmons, musician Tyler Barham, artist Larry Pirnie and photographer Mark Mesenko judged each of the entries and selected a winner in each category to receive a $7,500 prize.

Online voters also selected winners in each category for a $2,500 People’s Choice Award.

The celebrity panel chose Britt Juchem of Missoula as the winner of the video category, Briar Ahlborn of St. Ignatius for outdoor art and Peyton Schliep of Great Falls for photography. Jacob Jones of Belgrade won the People’s Choice Award for video, Laura Goulet of Belgrade for outdoor art and Ross Peterson of Missoula for photography.

The Montana Meth Project previously held Paint the State campaigns in 2006 and 2010, during which teens across Montana created more than 1,000 works of public art with a focus on preventing methamphetamine use.

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