ARTFUL SNEAKERS: Bigfork High art students advance in national design contest

Bigfork is known as an artist community, and the high school even gets in on the action.

Sarah Taylor’s advanced art class at Bigfork High School recently made the top 50 in the nation out of 1,500 schools for their shoe designs in a national competition.

Sponsored by Van’s shoes, the designs are based on four themes of art, music, local color and extreme sports.

Belgrade, Mont., is the only other Montana school to advance in the competition.

If Bigfork advances and wins the competition, they are eligible to receive $60,000 for the high school art program, Taylor said. The local color shoe has detail of Glacier National Park, buffalo, trout bear and wolf. Extreme sports features surfing, a zip line and motocross. Now that the school’s shoe designs have advanced, they’ll do a skateboard design. “Even if we don’t advance any farther, making the top 50 is pretty awesome,” Taylor said.