This July, eight students from the St. Edward’s University photocommunications department will have their work featured at a local public museum.

The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum will host St. Edward’s students’ photos in an exhibit called Texas High School Football: More Than the Game. The exhibit, which will run from July 2011 to January 2012, is the first to explore high school football in Texas.

Last fall, photocommunications Professor Bill Kennedy taught a class that allowed students and alumni to work directly with museum curators. The museum wanted the photographers to document the cultural and social importance of Texas high school football. Students focused on several different aspects of football games, such as the cheerleading, band, fans in the stands and mascots.

The purpose of the exhibit was to display the impact that high school football has on the community as a whole, according to Kathryn Best, the exhibit content coordinator. She said that the museum wants to show how football games get everyone involved, not just the players on the field.

The museum became interested in working with Kennedy when guest curator Joe Nick Patoski saw some of Kennedy’s images of high school stadiums in his magazine, BK Magazine. Kennedy and Patoski then developed an elective class that would give students the chance to build their portfolios by having their work shown at a premier Texas public museum.

Until recently, students did not know whether the museum would feature their work. There was no guarantee that the photos taken in the fall would be part of the exhibit.

However, a few weeks ago, Best told Kennedy that 53 images would be considered for use in the core of the of the museum’s main exhibit. Best said the museum is looking for very specific photographs for the main exhibit, and the curators will be able to choose from the pool of 53 images. Best had not planned to rely so heavily on these images but said that the material was so rich that curators did not need to look elsewhere for other images.

In September, an exhibit will showcase student work for two weeks. Each student chose 10 of their images to be shown for a total of 80 images to be included in the exhibit.

The exhibit will open on Sept. 21. The opening night of Sept. 23 will feature a guest speaker, Rice University Professor of Photography Geoff Winningham, the author of “Rites of Fall.” “Rites of Fall,” published 1979, was the first book to document Texas high school football. A few students from the class will also be speaking about their work in a panel.

During the course of the exhibit, a catalogue of student work will be on sale.

Kennedy said that he wanted to prepare photocommunications students with real world experiences, such as the one offered last semester with the Bob Bullock Museum. He said it was a very intense educational process for students.

“The photocommunications program, one of the best undergraduate photography programs in the nation, is dedicated to producing the next generation of exceptionally well-trained and successful photographers,” Kennedy said.

One of the students in the class from last fall, junior Allie Crain, said that she was very honored and excited to be working with Patoski and the museum for the project.

“I’ve been dreaming about my first exhibition for a long time now, and this easily beats out anything that I dreamt up,” Crain said.