The Butler County Board of Education’s walls were decidedly more appealing Thursday as the building housed the district’s Art Gallery walk, which was comprised of the works of more than a dozen talented and budding artists from around the county.

Fourteen pieces of artwork were chosen among K-12 students across all four schools in the area to represent Butler County in the annual State Superintendent’s Visual Arts Exhibit held in Montgomery.

The pieces will be on display at the Old Supreme Court Library of the Alabama State Capitol.

The bodies of work were divided into two different categories: two-dimensional and photography or computer-generated graphic design.

Entries selected for the state competition will also be further subdivided into different age groups for submissions ranging from K-6 and 7-12.

From the state competition, a first, second and third place winner will be chosen, and all three will be treated to an award luncheon in February.

Tera Simmons, director of curriculum for the Butler County School System, said that the art gallery walk is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the variety of talent on display in the district.

“We have sports activities, which are important, but we have other students that are just as talented artistically, and I think it’s great to give them an opportunity to display their artistic talents and be recognized,” Simmons said.

“We all have different gifts and I could not even draw what they have drawn in 10 years, so I’m very pleased with the students’ artwork.”

The Board of Education Art Gallery Walk is just one of several different methods employed to increase the number of academic competitions held throughout the county this year, and a great deal more are on the way in 2014.

Simmons added that creating a number of varied avenues for Butler County students to express themselves is important above all else.

“We had the Poetry Out Loud competition this year, and we have three students that won in our district and now they’re going to the state competition — if they win there, then they’ll actually go to the national competition,” Simmons said. “And we have scholar’s bowl, a science fair, a math tournament and a reading fair coming up, so we’re just trying to give all of our students an opportunity to really shine.”

The annual State Superintendent’s Visual Arts Exhibit will be held February 6-21, and all visitors are welcome to visit and see the artwork on display during that period.