(BPT) - We live in a visual age, consuming thousands of images every day via a range of devices that allow us to access the Internet and its vast resources quickly and easily. Just as with virtually every other aspect of our lives, journalism has also evolved to keep pace with our increasingly visual world.

More than 850 students, teachers and family members gathered at the State Capitol on March 29 to celebrate and recognize student achievement in the visual arts.

Jane Matranga, assistant professor, school of design and fashion at Stephens College in Columbia, will present a program to the Sedalia Visual Arts Association at 6 p.m. April 3 downstairs at the Third National Residential Lending Center, 403 W. Broadway Blvd.

Sedalia Visual Art Association is inviting the public to go along on a day trip to The Strawberry Hill Museum and Culture Center in the old Croatian neighborhood of downtown Kansas City, Kan., on June 1.

While Sedalia’s west-side dining tilt is merely a more-extreme version of typical restaurant clustering, its layout of bars and live music venues is decidedly unusual.

Nadia Ostapenko, a fifth-grader at Sedalia Middle School, left, gives Carolyn Sperry, a Daum Museum of Contemporary Art docent, her interpretation of the symbolism in “Generals,” a mixed-media collage by Lupus Garrett that spans two walls in the Douglas Freed Gallery. About 125 fifth-graders divided into five groups were at the museum Tuesday and, with the guidance by docents, were given the opportunity to view and comment on five different art pieces on display at the museum as part of a Visual Thinking Strategies program. “It’s great fun, they went beyond the obvious,” Sperry said. “Their interpretations are wonderful,” she said.

Heber Hunt Elementary School students learned a little about art, a little about language and a little about diversity during a field trip Friday to the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art.

Tristan Andrews, a junior at Warsaw High School, has been selected to attend the Missouri Fine Arts Academy this summer in Springfield. He is the son of Jason Andrews. Jenny Greene is his art instructor.

The board of directors of the Marshall Cultural Council announced the recent formation of the arts organization.

by Sean Hirshberg

COLUMBIA — The 17th annual Columbia Festival of the Arts will bring performing, visual and literary artists to downtown Columbia on Sept. 27 and 28.

Art of all media will be available at the Liberty Center Association for the Arts’ annual Art Auction on Jan. 28 at the Liberty Center, 111 W. Fifth St. in Sedalia.

The annual Sedalia Visual Arts Association Member’s Show is ongoing at the Katy Depot. It is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

Family members of St. Paul’s Lutheran School students enjoyed a meal, music and visual arts on Tuesday night in the school gym during the Fine Arts Festival, which is part of Lutheran Schools Week.

“The Art of Friends” — featuring Janet Bice, Marilyn Love and Glenda Miller of the Sedalia Visual Art Association — will be on display through May at the Liberty Center, 111 W. Fifth St. in Sedalia.