This month, Red Chair Gallery in Bend is hosting its annual “Emerging Artists” exhibit, featuring the juried works of some 75 students from Bend, Mountain View and Summit high schools.

The intention behind the show — and a monthlong internship for three of the students — is to give the teens bona fide gallery-world experience.

The show kicks off with a reception during the April First Friday Gallery Walk, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Friday.

The buildup to the annual show is an “exhausting” endeavor, said Dee McBrien-Lee, one of four partner-artists behind the Oregon Avenue gallery, which boasts dozens more artists who are signed on as members. Red Chair is the regular home of sculpture, functional and decorative ceramics, wood, jewelry, glass, fiber art and all manner of 2-D art.

And for this one month each spring, it also serves as the temporary home of 2-D, sculpture and ceramic works by high school students.

“They’ve got to price their art thinking that it’s going to sell. They actually become members for the month at the gallery, and we take our standard (sale) commission, like we do from our members,” McBrien-Lee said. “We make sure that we (have) 15 paintings from each school, and then depending on how much sculptural or ceramic work we have, that varies, but the number of paintings and photographs is usually pretty even.”

Getting practical art-world experience also includes the reality that in a juried show, not all works are deemed worthy of inclusion.

“Just from the very get-go, when we actually jury the work, not everybody gets in,” she said. “It’s not a ‘make everybody feel good’ kind of experience. It’s supposed to be more real world.”

Since 2015, in addition to the exhibiting artists, three high school students have been picked for the gallery’s internship program.

“They work a couple of shifts in the gallery, and they help jury the works of the different schools. At the beginning of March, we went to each school, and we had a student with us at each one to help us choose which works would get hung,” McBrien-Lee said.

Other internship responsibilities include readying the show for First Friday, greeting arriving patrons and encouraging them to vote for people’s choice awards, in which first and second place winners receive gift certificates at Blick Art Supplies.

Interns also have the opportunity to participate in any of three workshops put on by the gallery’s partners. Finally, they help pull down the show and check the inventory afterward.

Mountain View High School senior Kira Domzalski has been juried into the Emerging Artists show for the second year, and is serving as an intern for the first time.

“I think that it’s just really nice that I’m able to be another voice … when I put in my (jury) vote,” said Domzalski, who judged 2-D and 3-D art at Bend High.

Domzalski moved to the United States from Australia in February 2016 — about the same time she fell in love with sculpture, she said.

“It’s just the most interesting way I can express myself,” she said. Last year, she wasn’t sure she even wanted to sell her contribution to the show, but this year, she’s hoping to sell a teapot set she made.

Fellow Mountain View senior Lillian Pichardo has been painting since elementary school, thanks to her former babysitter, watercolorist Annie Ferder.

“She really encouraged me to get into art, and she helped me buy some art supplies,” Pichardo said. “It kind of just filtered on into middle school and high school.”

Pichardo said she plans to study art next year at Southern Oregon University in Ashland. Right now, she paints whatever captures her interest. For this show, that’s a piece titled “The Cherubim,” depicting a four-headed creature with rainbow wings.

“I kind of just draw or paint whatever I think is interesting,” she said, adding with a laugh, “A lot of people are able to have meanings behind their works, but that’s not really what I do.”

Jesse Lockwood, an art instructor at Bend High, has been a supporter of Red Chair’s annual student show since its inception, and continues to be an enthusiastic supporter.

“It builds up a lot of these young artists’ creative confidence and inspires them to continue to live creative lives,” he wrote in an email.

“The internship program is really cool, too. It gives that one student who is really into the art scene the experience and knowledge of what it’s like to hang a show. Plus, they get some amazing art instruction from the gallery as well.”

This year, Lockwood and fellow art teacher Matt Fox, who teaches photography and digital graphics artwork, have a combined 55 students in Red Chair’s show.

“This is the most we’ve had so far,” Lockwood said. In typical years, about 30 art students represent Bend High in the show.

Feedback from his students has always been positive, he said.

“They are truly excited for the experience, especially when they first walk in the gallery on First Friday and see their art hanging on a gallery wall,” Lockwood said. “I’ve never experienced any kids being bummed about not selling their work. They are just excited to have it in the show (and) see it on the wall in the gallery. The ones that do sell work … definitely are stoked.”