General News
24 February, 2026
Local recognised for artistic print series
Former Highview student Mia Crossley has championed the continuous value of art, using her award winning creation to reflect modern teenage life and identity.
The recent graduate took home the “Most Creative” award at Ballarat Art Gallery’s NEXT GEN exhibition. With over 100 submissions, only 21 young artists were accepted into the showcase.
Mia was one of them.
Inspired early on in her studies by a former VCE student who recreated their bedroom, Mia tried everything from clay to digital editing to build a similar product.
Finally, the former student decided to pull her bedroom apart and take individual photos of her favourite items. Each object underwent a painstakingly long editing process via Adobe Photoshop.
Together, the items symbolise every personal posession having a story.
“I tried to do something digitally, and I took photos of stuff around my room ... I tried editing, I tried blacking out the background ... and I tried to replicate Andy Warhol’s style,” she said.
Mia’s expansive canvases of photographic prints, titled ‘inside the world of a chronically online girl’ went on to be one of many by talented VCE student pieces featured in last year’s Emergent exhibition at the Central Goldfields Art Gallery.
Following this, Mia was thrilled to be informed her piece was shortlisted into the NEXT GEN exhibition at Ballarat Art Gallery. Not only that, her submission was then awarded ‘Most Creative.’
“It felt exciting because I don’t really like science and maths … I always liked english and art and that doesn’t always get recognised. At Highview, there’s a big focus on sport. And I’m not very athletic,” she said.
The exhibition had Mia’s work showcased alongside students of various government, private and independent schools from through-out the Western Victoria region, encompassing high scoring work from 2025 VCE studies across art, media, visual communication design, product design and technology.
The annual exhibition gives viewers insights into the world of young people today by revealing their vision, ideas and skills, the exact objective of Mia’s piece.
She feels art will always be a fundamental part of people’s lives, deserving the same recognition as life’s more often praised pursuits.
“Doctors and athletes still go home at the end of the day and put on a TV show or a movie, or they have art in their offices,” she said.
As for her future plans, Mia will undertake a gap year, before studying teaching at university.