Students in the MCC Art Department represent an incredibly broad range of backgrounds and individual educational goals, but they all share one common attribute: the passion for art and design.

Participation in the Student Art Show juried exhibition at MCC Gallery is an important tradition culminating the academic year.  Students gain experience in photographing their work, responding to a call for entry, and showing their work to a wide audience while having the opportunity to win cash awards to further support their academic and career pursuits in the arts.

Meet our jurors for 2024:

    Ted Decker wrote and teaches MCC’s first online Art History course. In Spring, 2020, he was named 2020 Outstanding Adjunct Faculty member at Mesa Community College.  As a full-time faculty Instructor, he also teaches the Professional Practices course, a critical writing about art and design course, and an art appreciation course online at Arizona State University.  He is currently the Director and Curator of the Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art (phICA) which he co-founded in 2010.  As an advocate for the visual arts and artists for over 4 decades, he has provided nearly $120,000 in mostly mini-grants directly to artists for building the professional side of their careers through the Ted Decker Catalyst Fund he established in 2003. 

   Max Smith has been working for Art One Gallery for 16 years since he was a teenager and is now the manager of the gallery.  He is not a visual artist, but has a passion for music and supporting the arts!  Art One Gallery has exclusively represented students and local artists of Arizona since 1993.  Learn more about submitting your artwork at artonegalleryinc.com/submit.

   Matt Rayman earned his Associate’s Degree at Mesa Community College in Fine Arts in 2017. While attending MCC, he was a founding member of the MCC Art Club. He began his career in higher education in 2014 as a student worker, and now serves Manufacturing students as the Navigation Analyst in the department of Workforce & Economic Development at the Maricopa County Community College District office. Currently a resident of the Mesa Artspace Lofts in Downtown Mesa, he continues to support the local Arts community, and remains a strong advocate for universal access to quality public education. Matt also believes the ‘A’ in Art should always be capitalized.