Seventy-three talented young people - from senior students soon to leave school, to little girls bringing along Teddy to share the prize - have their work displayed in Let's Hang It!, opened on Friday night.

"Tonight is all about celebrating the creative talent and artistic achievements of New England's young artists," NERAM director Rachael Parsons said.

"The next generation of artists from this region have great imaginations and fantastic creative skills. They will be able to apply these skills to a whole range of challenges and opportunities that they face in study, work, and life."

A panel of UNE and NERAM staff selected the finalist artworks from 576 submitted from 41 schools across northern NSW. Two works from St Patrick's Primary School students in Walcha and one from a Niangala Primary School infants student were included.

Walcha artist Myf Gulliver chose the winners and Walcha Councillor Jen Kealey's daughter Ria, who is a year 12 student at Armidale PLC, was the winner of the senior secondary prize.

Ms Laurie said it was a difficult choice as all were very good.

In the end, she said, she chose the works, "that made my heart sing". She praised the sensitivity of the senior school students' pieces, and the freedom and joyfulness of the infants' works.

Winner: Maive Johnson (Lawrence Public School, kindergarten) - "Baby and Poppa" (paint/oil pastel)

Runner-up: Lara Coleman (Bundarra Central School, kindergarten) - "Trio of dogs" (watercolour)

Winner: Jessy Cox (St Joseph's Primary School, Coraki, Year 6) - "Coastal Mountains" (painting)

Runner-up: Diane Pineda (Dorrigo Primary School, Year 6) - "Jenaya - Pugs 4 Life" (oil pastel drawing)

Winner: Bethany Eickhoff (Presbyterian Ladies College, Year 9) - "Roses are red, violets are blue, these ones are pink" (pencil and watercolour)

Bethany felt overwhelmed and excited. "It's the first time I've been hung in a gallery, so I feel quite privileged," she said. "It's quite an honour to be chosen as the winner."

Her work is a self-portrait based on a photograph in a series she took of herself over a month for a school art project.

Bethany wants to become an aerospace engineer, but hasn't completely dismissed the idea of being an artist.

"I'm definitely going to continue doing it for the rest of my life, I think," she said. "I'd love to do it on the side of anything else I was doing."

Bethany has loved drawing since childhood. When her family moved from California to Australia, she used to carry a sketchbook around with her all the time.

"Constantly drawing and expressing myself that way was really freeing for me," she said.

Runner-up: Dechen Kandro (Uralla Central School, Year 7) - "Hand perception" (pencil/colour pencil)

Winner: Ria Kealey (Presbyterian Ladies College, Year 12) - "Atlas Sleeping" (acrylic on board)

Ria did not expect to win the prize. "I forgot that I'd entered it," she said. "But it's a formal validation that this could potentially be something to pursue. It's satisfying, feeling I've done something that has achieved some form of acclaim."

She plans to go into academe, studying history and gender studies, but she expects art will always be part of her life. Classical mythology and poetry influence her work; the title refers to the Titan Atlas holding the world on his shoulders.

"The idea of Atlas sleeping to take a nap was somewhat entertaining to me."

Ria got into art when she was seven. She had an intense bird phase where she knew everything about birds and started drawing them; since then, she said, she's followed her niche interests to some other form.

Runner-up: Noah Standen-Roberts (Armidale Secondary College, Year 11) - "Self-portrait" (pen)

Alice Walker (Armidale Secondary College, Year 12) - "Inside" (pen)

Armidale Secondary College, for its diversity of media and subject matter

Jaz Blakester (Armidale Secondary College) - "Past, Present, and Future"

Jaz entered three artworks - but she didn't expect this work (nicknamed "the smoking granny" by NERAM staff) to get in at all.

"I'm extremely surprised, actually, but I'm happy!"

Jaz-zed, one might say.

Her painting is based off her great-grandmother and Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians.

"She was always super-sassy, like Cruella," Jaz remembered. "I admired her clothing, and that she didn't care what people thought about her."

Jaz started drawing with sticks in the dirt as a child. She went to the Steiner School, where she drew every day, and ended up loving it.

"It's a way to get out pent-up feelings," she said; "it's relaxing."

She wants to have a career in animation and video-game development, mixing traditional stuff and technology "to create insanely cool things".

The possibilities for the future with technology are amazing - but she's still waiting on hoverboards, hovercars, and hoverscooters.

Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Todd Walker presented certificates of distinction to the prize-winners.

The UNESAP exhibition is on display at the New England Regional Art Museum, Kentucky Street, Armidale, until August. It has been made possible by the University of New England, and sponsored by S&S Creativity Unlimited.