BY KAREN BOSSICK

A Sage School student who has already had several pieces of artwork exhibited at the Friedman Memorial Airport was recently awarded second place in a statewide competition.

Brooke Vagias, a 16-year-old sophomore at Sage School, was awarded second place in a statewide competition through the Wassmuth center for Human Rights for her piece “Mother of Exiles.”

Her work will be featured at the Hansberger Arts Awards Showcase at JUMP Boise on May 7. The event is part of the City of Boise’s America 250: First Thursdays at JUMP series.

Brooke Vagias will finish her mural on the back of the Blaine County Historical Museum depicting books of historical significance to the Wood River Valley this summer. PHOTO: Jenna Vagias

The event from 6:30 to 8 p.m. celebrates student artwork, performance and writing in response to Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and will include student arts awards at 6:30 p.m. followed by a Boise Rock School performance at 7:30 p.m. at JUMP at 1000 W. Myrtle St. in downtown Boise.

The piece came out of her Sage School independent study and explores the question “What does ‘We the People’ mean to you?” through themes of human rights and freedom from discrimination.

Brooke’s piece conveys the anguish of Lady Liberty as she watches the promise of “freedom in America” turned against the people who journeyed her in search of it.

“Her huddled masses can no longer find refuge in the embrace of Liberty’s shadow, despite the way America is framed as a land of opportunity. Like her, we stand by and watch as the discrimination in our country runs rampant,” Brooke writes.

Brooke Vagias notes that Lady Liberty, “the Mother of Exiles,” has always been a symbol of acceptance but that liberty and justice are not upheld for all in our country.” PHOTO: Jenna Vagias

“But unlike her, we are not wrought in iron and steel,” Brooke continues. “We all have the power to make change, doing what the Lady wishes she could. Will you simply join in her silent suffering of yearning for a better home? Or will you act to challenge discrimination with love, acceptance, and an open heart? Speak out, in the name of the country we live in and the country it could be.”

“It’s been really powerful to watch her use both art and writing to engage with ideas that she is passionate about,” said Brooke’s mother Jenna Vagias.

Vagias spent her younger days in Yellowstone National Park before her family moved to the Wood River Valley after her father Wade Vagias became superintendent of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. She developed an affinity for the natural environment that surrounded her and discovered her love of vibrant colors during her middle school years at the local Waldorf school.

Her work encompasses both landscapes and social issues as she draws from a long variety of mediums including collage, sculpture, plaster, sewing and gouache.

Saoirse Ellis and Brooke Vagias took part in the Fourth of July Parade as clown jugglers when the Blaine County Historical Museum organized a circus entry in honor of Samson the runaway elephant. PHOTO: Karen Bossick

Brooke’s submission for the Wassmuth Center competition was just one of many projects she’s been involved with this year.

Last fall, she was selected by the Blaine County Historical Museum to create a mural highlighting authors and books connected to our local history. She’s finishing that this spring. 

Her dreamcatcher, Anatomy of a Dream, was recently accepted into the Friedman Memorial Airport Art Show—art lovers will be able to see it during the airport’s Artist Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 20. The Anatomy of a Dream, made with elk jawbones, a rodent skull, assorted teeth, butterfly wings and feathers, was inspired by a hike where she found a cow elk skeleton curled into her final resting place in sagebrush.

“I decided to liberate her jawbones,” Brooke said. “I’ve always been fascinated by bones and the dreams they can never share but that echo through. them. I grew up in Yellowstone National Park where the cycle of life and death didn’t feel like tragedy but a story that we are all characters in. This dreamcatcher is a visual manifestation of the way death is more than an ending. Rather it’s a graceful web that weaves its way into everything—a binding force of life.”

Brooke Vagias has won prizes for favorite nonprofits in Sun Valley Resort’s annual Community Gingerbread Contest. The “Up House” featured a balloon rising out of the chimney of a Victorian-style house. PHOTO: Karen Bossick

Brooke has submitted a proposal to the City of Hailey Arts Commission to paint a mural on the carwash next to the rodeo grounds this summer and is waiting to hear if she will be tasked with this project this summer.

She was recently awarded the Sun Valley Museum of Art’s Creative Journeys High School Visual Arts Exploration Scholarship, which she will accept at a reception on April 29. She’ll use the scholarship funds to take an online course this summer through Rhode Island School of Design. 

She has created playful chalkboard designs at the Hailey Public Library, even transforming a car into a rolling canvas of swirling, colorful patterns.

She is passing along her love of the arts through SVMOA’s Teen Intern program, teaching students watercolor painting at the Trinity School or leading Teen Crafts at the Hailey Public Library.

After winning the first Earth Day Thrift Store Fashion Show, she became a judge of the next one.

With all this, she still finds time to serve as a Compassionate Leader through Flourish Foundation, as a teen librarian at the Hailey Public Library and as an intern with the Liberty Theater Company and the Sun Valley Museum of Art. AND she competes on the Sun Valley high school lacrosse team.

Oh, she also sells notecards at Café Della and Copy & Print to help fund her art supplies, all while maintaining her website at https://brookevagias.weebly.com/. (Check it out to see images of her innovative watercolor and mixed media pieces).

“In my professional work in mental health, I see firsthand how much our teens are navigating right now, and Brooke is no exception,” said Jenna Vagias, who heads up TogetherWe, formerly the Blaine County Mental Well-Being Initiative. “It feels important to also shine a light on the ways they’re showing up for their community with creativity, courage, and heart which gives me a lot of hope for the future.”