The Austin Area Art Center in the Oak Park Mall will be busy this week with its summer Festival Art Showcase and City Purchase Award.

This is the 24th year for the showcase, and it is the art center’s only annual competitive exhibition. It features area artists who will present their work in one of three different brackets: Professional, Pro-am and Amateur.

Monetary awards will be given to the top three of each division.

Subject matter and medium are left up to the artist. In the past submissions have included oil painting, watercolors, sketches, wire sculpture and quilting. Each artist can submit up to three pieces.

Entries are being accepted through today. Registration forms can be picked up at the art center, the Austin Public Library or Lou’s Forever Framing on Main Street. The competition is open to all.

“This is a great place to start,” said Linda Draper, Austin Area Art Center administrative assistant. “You learn how to exhibit your art. It is a great experience.”

Draper is not only one of the organizers of the event, she is also a participant.

Judging will be done prior to the showcases opening, by an impartial judge from outside of the Austin area.

The displays will be set up on Monday and Tuesday, and be ready for the public on Wednesday.

The event will culminate with an award ceremony and the City of Austin purchasing one entry on Sunday, July 5 at 3 p.m. Mayor Tom Stiehm will present the Purchase Award.

The Purchase Award carries a $500 purse, and the piece will be displayed at the Austin Municipal building. A City of Austin representative will be the judge for this award; the art center will receive $100 of the purse.

“It’s an incentive to keep people interested in their art,” art center president Jim Wegner said.

Last year, John Muellerliele of Owatonna received the City Purchase Award for a picture showing an eagle with an American flag backdrop.

From noon to 4 p.m. on July 5, the art center will also hold its Pie in July Fundraiser. Volunteers will be selling fresh baked pies and beverages to help support the center.

“They make wonderful pies,” Draper said, “and it helps us continue to provide services to artists in the community.

The Austin Area Art Center is a nonprofit organization that has provided a venue and network for area artists to show and sell their work for 50 years.

The art center is open Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.; Friday, noon to 6 p.m.; and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, call the art center at 433-8451.