On April 27, 28, and 29, 2018, the Heard-Craig Center for the Arts hosted McKinney's ART MEETS FLORAL regional design competition in the main museum. Designers from all over the DFW area came together to create stunning representations of oil paintings, watercolor paintings, and acrylic paintings, some as old as the 1700s and others as new as 2018.

Each year, attendees vote for a People's Choice award. The 2018 winner was designer, Lourdes Corral, from Edwards Floral Design out of McKinney, Texas (www.edwardsfloral.com 972-548-9911). The company receive a free year of advertising at the Heard-Craig as the People's Choice winner (see winning design, below, coupled with the Italian ruins painting from the 1700s).

We thank all our participating designers for their expertise and we recommend that our customers contact us for our list of preferred designers when searching for a floral arrangement. The designers work shown below include those from:

Maryam Shokri, Artist and Designer (second place winner), Irum Rangwala, Interior Designer (3rd place winner), Amy Choi of "Ready, Set, Grow"; Yvette Powers of "Say It with Flowers and Chocolate"; Basia Cannon and Crystal Monson, Janine Crum, Jeanette Maska, and more.

Special Thanks go to our downtown restaurant partner, THE CELT, for their generous contribution of the Reception food and to the City of McKinney and the McKinney Convention and Visitor's Bureau for the partial funding of the event advertising. The designers for this year's show did an outstanding job of interpreting the paintings, making this event an exemplary form of the City's tagline, "Unique By Nature". See you next year.