Archer Li, one of our talented students here at Art World School, was announced as the Cover Art Winner of the 2025 Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Calendar Art Contest at the award ceremony on 8/22/25! Out of over 650 submissions from students across the state, Archer’s work stood out to the judges for its creativity and execution. He was 1 of 13 winners of the annual Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Calendar Art Contest, with his work being displayed on the cover.  

Each year, Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom hosts a statewide contest inviting K-12 students to create original artwork that highlights the importance of agriculture in Oregon. A few examples of Oregon’s agriculture include Oregon grown commodities, Fruits, Christmas trees, livestock and fishery products.Archer’s winning piece falls under the Oregon sea life side of agriculture. He created a detailed colored pencil image of an Oregon dungeness crab riddled with shades of deep red, orange and yellow. The judges were  impressed with the lighting and simple complexity of the background.  

Archer worked tirelessly perfecting his techniques and skill during our Drawing and painting classes at Art World Schools Fine Art Program. He has been a long time student at the school since he was 4 years old, by attending the After School program every day. He started by taking the shorter 1 hour group classes to become acquainted with all the fine art mediums, fundamental skills, and art theory. Then, he was able to refine his skills in various mediums and techniques in the longer 90 minute group classes as well as 45 minute one-on-one classes with Director Mimi.  

At the award ceremony and interview afterwards, Archer happily explained his reasons for choosing the Dungeness Crab to portray for his art entry and the process he went through to create his composition. Director Mimi attended the award ceremony with Archer at the Oregon State Fair on 8/22/25 and also communicated how Archer did extensive research on the Dungeness Crab and its habitat, then found reference material for the crab and environment in Oregon to use for his artwork. He sketched out many ideas for his composition before proceeding to execute the final artwork. He spent a great deal of time working on layering and details for his piece with colored pencils, to render his idea for the composition to the best of his ability. 

Archer was very excited to attend the award ceremony with his family and Director Mimi from Art World School. He was also interviewed after the award ceremony and commented on his positive experience from the process of completing his artwork.  

Congratulations to Archer on this achievement and completing such a wonderful artwork!