What is it?
Dundee Draws is a FREE, live, friendly, single-round art competition for youth and adult artists! Artists will be arranged in a circle at 50th & Underwood and will have 30 minutes to draw a provided subject at the center of their art circle. Judges will select one winner each from the youth and adult rounds. Competing artists will have the opportunity to win gift cards from local art supply stores, and have their art displayed in the windows of local merchants along Underwood Avenue. Paper and drawing boards will be provided. Limited art supplies will be available on-site, so we ask each artist to bring their own medium (crayons, colored pencils, pastels, etc.).
Join us!
Only 12 slots are available per age division, so sign up soon! Registration is FREE (but required) and will close on August 19TH, or after 12 artists sign up in each age division. The winners of the adult and youth rounds (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) will receive $100, $75, and $50!
Youth Round: August 22 @ 1:00 PM
REGISTER FOR FREE HERE
Adult Round: August 22 @ 1:45 PM
REGISTER FOR FREE HERE
Youth Round: August 22 @ 1:00 PM
REGISTER FOR FREE HERE
Adult Round: August 22 @ 1:45 PM
REGISTER FOR FREE HERE
Dundee Draws 2026 Judges
We are excited to announce our esteemed judges for this year's Dundee Draws: Valerie St. Pierre Smith and Emily Mitchell. Both accomplished visual artists, Valerie and Emily bring unique perspectives and rich experiences to the judging panel. Their commitment to storytelling and representation in art will help highlight the incredible talent from our community. Learn more about their inspiring work below!
Valerie St. Pierre Smith
“Aanii, ndinaawamagaanadog! Maygabow Ogidajew Kwe, nindizhinikaaz. Gaawaabaabiganikaag ndoonjibaa, Migizi ndoodem. Hello, my relatives! My name is Woman Standing on the Mountaintop; Valerie St.Pierre Smith is my English name. A proud descendant of White Earth Nation, I am Eagle clan.”
Wonderer and wanderer Valerie St.Pierre Smith is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, educator, and scholar. Fascinated from a very young age with fashion, identity, and the healing power of beauty, Valerie sees creation as an act of care. Using material, texture, color, line, shape, pattern, and linguistics as language, she relates the deep stories held within our bodies, our relationships, and our histories. Weaving these elements together through textiles, fashion, traditional fine art mediums, and digital technologies, she integrates her lived experience as a mixed-race urban Anishnaabe kwe into contemporary representation. Rooted in the 7 Grandfather teachings, Wisdom, Love, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility, and Truth all guide Valerie’s way of creating, working, seeing, and knowing. Notably Valerie’s work has been seen across Turtle Island including at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Mountain Plains Contemporary Art Biennial, Calgary Fashion Week, McCarter Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Sea World: San Diego, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, and independent gallery and exhibition spaces. Her scholarship on indigenizing and decolonizing western art and design practices has been shared at numerous national and international conferences and institutions, including Central Saint Martens College of Art and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Deeply honored, Valerie has participated in the Indigenous Haute Couture residency at Banff Centre for Art and Creativity; Amplify Art’s Alternate Currents cohort; Healing Ribbons founding board of directors; and Great Plains Theatre Commons’ Design Wing.
She also serves, or has served, as faculty at several institutions including Interlochen Academy Summer Intensives, Banff Centre, George Washington University, and University of Nebraska at Omaha. Valerie holds a B.F.A from Stephens College, and an M.F.A from San Diego State University.
Follow Valerie on social media: @valeriestpierresmith
“Aanii, ndinaawamagaanadog! Maygabow Ogidajew Kwe, nindizhinikaaz. Gaawaabaabiganikaag ndoonjibaa, Migizi ndoodem. Hello, my relatives! My name is Woman Standing on the Mountaintop; Valerie St.Pierre Smith is my English name. A proud descendant of White Earth Nation, I am Eagle clan.”
Wonderer and wanderer Valerie St.Pierre Smith is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, educator, and scholar. Fascinated from a very young age with fashion, identity, and the healing power of beauty, Valerie sees creation as an act of care. Using material, texture, color, line, shape, pattern, and linguistics as language, she relates the deep stories held within our bodies, our relationships, and our histories. Weaving these elements together through textiles, fashion, traditional fine art mediums, and digital technologies, she integrates her lived experience as a mixed-race urban Anishnaabe kwe into contemporary representation. Rooted in the 7 Grandfather teachings, Wisdom, Love, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility, and Truth all guide Valerie’s way of creating, working, seeing, and knowing. Notably Valerie’s work has been seen across Turtle Island including at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Mountain Plains Contemporary Art Biennial, Calgary Fashion Week, McCarter Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Sea World: San Diego, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, and independent gallery and exhibition spaces. Her scholarship on indigenizing and decolonizing western art and design practices has been shared at numerous national and international conferences and institutions, including Central Saint Martens College of Art and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Deeply honored, Valerie has participated in the Indigenous Haute Couture residency at Banff Centre for Art and Creativity; Amplify Art’s Alternate Currents cohort; Healing Ribbons founding board of directors; and Great Plains Theatre Commons’ Design Wing.
She also serves, or has served, as faculty at several institutions including Interlochen Academy Summer Intensives, Banff Centre, George Washington University, and University of Nebraska at Omaha. Valerie holds a B.F.A from Stephens College, and an M.F.A from San Diego State University.
Follow Valerie on social media: @valeriestpierresmith
Emily Mitchell
Emily Mitchell is a multidisciplinary artist who loves to explore materials and process. She works with watercolor, oil pastel, ink, collage, and photography. As of late, she has been exploring ceramics and reigniting her inner child, playing with clay and getting her hands dirty. A collector at heart, Emily often uses found objects and imagery in her artwork, while being inspired by nature and her surroundings. Emily believes in the healing power of art, self-expression, and activating the creative voice within all of us.
Emily was born and raised in Dundee. She returned to Omaha 10 years ago after living in Chicago, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts, with an emphasis in Art Therapy, from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, in 2007. Emily has spent the majority of her career holding roles within arts organizations and nonprofits in Chicago and Omaha. She has years of experience working with youth of all ages and adults in various programming, workshops, and classes as a Teaching Artist, Facilitator, and Coordinator. These organizations include NorthStar Foundation, Outward Bound Omaha, The Union for Contemporary Art, and The Joslyn Art Museum. Active in Omaha’s art scene, this year Emily has shown work at Project Project, Radial Arts Center, and The Joslyn Art Museum.
Emily’s good eye, attention to detail, and curatorial skills get put to good use through her business Handled, assisting individuals, families, and businesses, with their downsizing, organizing, and move-related projects and needs. She is a resale vendor at the Dundee Flea at Blue Line Coffee. She can be found in and around the Dundee community, whether that be at Blue Line Coffee, up at the Dundee Community Garden, or out and about walking her pup, Sully!
Learn more about Emily at www.emhandled.com
IG @emhandmade
Emily Mitchell is a multidisciplinary artist who loves to explore materials and process. She works with watercolor, oil pastel, ink, collage, and photography. As of late, she has been exploring ceramics and reigniting her inner child, playing with clay and getting her hands dirty. A collector at heart, Emily often uses found objects and imagery in her artwork, while being inspired by nature and her surroundings. Emily believes in the healing power of art, self-expression, and activating the creative voice within all of us.
Emily was born and raised in Dundee. She returned to Omaha 10 years ago after living in Chicago, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts, with an emphasis in Art Therapy, from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, in 2007. Emily has spent the majority of her career holding roles within arts organizations and nonprofits in Chicago and Omaha. She has years of experience working with youth of all ages and adults in various programming, workshops, and classes as a Teaching Artist, Facilitator, and Coordinator. These organizations include NorthStar Foundation, Outward Bound Omaha, The Union for Contemporary Art, and The Joslyn Art Museum. Active in Omaha’s art scene, this year Emily has shown work at Project Project, Radial Arts Center, and The Joslyn Art Museum.
Emily’s good eye, attention to detail, and curatorial skills get put to good use through her business Handled, assisting individuals, families, and businesses, with their downsizing, organizing, and move-related projects and needs. She is a resale vendor at the Dundee Flea at Blue Line Coffee. She can be found in and around the Dundee community, whether that be at Blue Line Coffee, up at the Dundee Community Garden, or out and about walking her pup, Sully!
Learn more about Emily at www.emhandled.com
IG @emhandmade
