National Arts Program

​​​Meet the Judges​

​Lee Baumgarten​ 

Lee Baumgarten​, a Charlotte native, is a painter, sculptor and visual artist whose works have been included in corporate and private collections across the United States and middle Europe. He has lived and produced in Ohio, New York, West Virginia, Florida and the Carolinas. He was an instructor at the Columbus College of Art & Design before founding Gallery 237, which later evolved into The Civic & Cultural Arts Center in Pineville, NC. He is a passionate advocate of the STEAM concept in public education. He recently restored Charlotte's beloved Hugh McManaway statue, which was returned to its original location in Myers Park on November 13, 2018 after a yearlong absence.​​

Ting Li​

​Ting Li is the founder of Pixelatoms​, an award-winning creative and technology studio ba​sed in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is passionate about supporting historic preservation, natural heritage conservation and STEAM education in public schools. Through her illustration project Built City, she is proud to support Charlotte Museum of History's Save Siloam School Project​. She holds a degree in biophysics and is in constant pursuit of understanding and discovering the power of art in science and technology.

​Dustin Shores​

Dustin Shores is a photographic artist and director of community engagement for The Light Factory, an exhibit and education space dedicated to photography for more than 40 years. He was born in 1983 and grew up in the rolling foothills of North Carolina. He received his bachelor of fine arts in photography from Winthrop University, located in Rock Hill, South Carolina in 2009. He recently completed his master of fine arts in photography from The University of Arizona, Tucson in the Spring of 2018.