Two new exhibits showcasing Boy Scouting in Southeast Missouri and artwork by area high school students will open Sunday at the Southeast Missouri State University Museum.

"The First 50 Years of Boy Scouting in Southeast Missouri, 1910-1960," will open with a reception from 4-6 p.m. Refreshments will be served. The exhibit will remain on display through Feb. 25.

"The Regional High School Exhibition Exhibiting Excellence" is a juried competition featuring a selected group of creative works from high school students in Southeast Missouri and southwest Illinois. The exhibit will open with a reception from 1-3 p.m., and awards will be presented at about 1:45 p.m.

High school art instructors have chosen the best of their students' work to compete for inclusion in the exhibit and awards by the juror, museum officials have said.

The juror, Ronald Koehler, is a sculpture instructor from Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss. Koehler holds degrees from Southeast Missouri State University and a master's degree in fine arts in sculpture from Memphis State University.

Koehler previously taught at Notre Dame High School and was the assistant director at the Arrowmont School of Crafts in Tennessee.

Awards will be presented to those student works believed to display special excellence. By featuring the best high school art of the region in the museum gallery, the Southeast Missouri State University art department hopes to encourage creativity, originality and further art study by high school students, museum officials said.

Two Southeast music students, Chad Pennington and William Grey, will provide guitar music during the Regional High School Exhibition opening reception. Refreshments will be served. The exhibit runs through Feb. 25.

The University Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. The museum is closed on weekends, except for the opening receptions.

The Southeast Missouri University Museum is in Memorial Hall on the circle drive off Pacific Street. For more information, call (314) 651-2260.