Every rodeo season, visitors to the NRG Center get treated to a competitive art show featuring around 4,000 works from students across 97 districts and 56 private schools. After an intensive judging process, 90 pieces are selected to go up for auction. Some of these can sell for over $200,000, with a guaranteed premium going directly to the artist, and any additional money supporting the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s (HLSR) Educational Fund. But the Rodeo’s commitment to the arts doesn’t begin or end with the familiar yee-haw season, which stretches over several weeks during late winter and early spring (not that Houston has seasons). In truth, HLSR’s visual arts programming extends well beyond that, with multiple initiatives devoted to engaging students interested in painting, sculpture, and other media.

According to Patti Wilbern, chairman of HLSR’s School Art Committee, the rodeo began partnering with Houston Independent School District (HISD) in 1963, in preparation for the 1964 event. A formal arts committee was formed in 1969, when four more districts were added to the program. Today, participating schools teach children from kindergarten through 12th grade about Western art traditions and select works created in the classroom. They then submit up to 10 pieces from elementary and junior high students and 15 to 25 from high school for judging, which determines whether the art goes up for auction. After judging concludes, the School Art Auction Committee assumes responsibility for handling the artwork, and some of the most promising high school students are also invited to apply to the Western Art Academy (WAA).

Operated in conjunction with Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas, WAA invites 40 teens from the HLSR art competition, along with some high schoolers affiliated with the San Antonio Livestock Exposition, and provides each with a four-week intensive focused on painting and sculpture. Wilbern and the School Art Committee collaborate with the WAA to handpick the students who will represent HLSR. This process includes interviews and a portfolio review conducted during rodeo season. By Father’s Day in June, the chosen 40 set off on their educational adventure.

It's an all-inclusive opportunity. Tuition, lodging, meals, art supplies, field trips, and entertainment are provided, and participating students earn college credit for an introductory art course; additional course credits are available if they attend WAA for multiple years. They receive comprehensive lessons in the fundamentals of art techniques, with an emphasis on Western themes. While the syllabus focuses on art, the content inherently offers some degree of interdisciplinary insight. “It's historical preservation of the involvement of our culture and way of life in the western part of the United States,” Wilbern says. “Mostly, everything is more Texas than anything else, but this includes people, dress, occupation, animals—horses, cows—native agriculture, and flora and fauna.” Indigenous themes have become more popular among students in recent years, alongside perennial favorites such as “cattle drives, wild horse branding, rodeo events, bull riders…fields of corn or wheat or farmland, flowers, bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, wild sunflowers, barns.”

For Pasadena Memorial High School senior Joshua Washington, who has taken part in WAA for two years, his most cherished piece is a sculpture he crafted of a wagon. “I just thought that it was unique...I don't think any of the other students did a wagon,” he says. “And I wanted to challenge myself, do something kind of complex.”

Washington describes his time at the academy as an “immersive experience,” mentioning that while he feels he’s stronger as a painter, WAA also helped pique his interest in sculpture. He enjoys learning about the tools and processes involved in creating three-dimensional art. After graduating, he hopes to assemble a portfolio that will allow him to work in the video game industry, as a graphic designer, or take on art commissions—he’s not yet sure. But he speaks highly of his two summers at WAA, appreciating the range of recreational activities available, including game nights, dance lessons, swimming, and volleyball, as well as the opportunity to travel around Kerrville to capture photo references for personal use.

The program has helped him develop a greater appreciation for the aesthetic traditions of the American West. “The style is appealing: the culture, the heritage, the history…it's just visually appealing, the whole idea of Western art,” he says.

Kerrville, located northwest of San Antonio and about a half-hour southeast of the Hill Country tourist darling Fredericksburg, is home to the Museum of Western Art. According to Dallas Meadows, the WAA director at Schreiner University, students and their instructors take a field trip to the museum the day after arriving in town. There, they study original works up close, including pieces by their own teachers, such as sculptors Jason Scull and Eric Slocombe. Meadows says this allows academy attendees to immediately understand their instructors' qualifications. The visit builds trust and underscores how unique this opportunity is for young artists.

This past year, WAA also partnered with San Antonio’s Briscoe Western Art Museum and a ranch just outside of Camp Verde, south of Kerrville, for some of its lessons. Meadows worked with museum models to create tableaux featuring horses, chuckwagons, longhorns, and other familiar Western art imagery on the ranch. The experience gave participants a chance to walk around and observe people, animals, and objects from multiple perspectives rather than a flat reference point.

“That's a really special thing, because you see the students, they bring their cameras usually,” Meadows says. “And they are told, ‘OK, the instructors are there,’ and they say, ‘OK, look at the way this person is standing, and be sure to take a photo at this angle and get all the good angles for the paintings and the sculptures.’”

For Meadows, WAA benefits high school students in two key ways. They learn about the foundational elements of art while also gaining a deeper understanding of the culture and history of the American West. A self-described “passionate person” about Texas history, she also believes that if a student can learn to sculpt or paint horses—a notoriously difficult animal to render accurately—they can probably sculpt or paint anything else after that.

“Those students need to know that you can be an artist once you get out of your classes,” Meadows says. “If you have this talent and you love to do it, you should be able to nurture it.”

Editor's note: A previous version of this article misstated Joshua Washington's last name. Houstonia regrets the error.