WASHINGTON — After Joshua Utley became one of the winners of the 2025 Congressional Art Competition, Congressman Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, showed the rising high school senior the view from the Cannon House Office Building outside of the U.S. Capitol.

“As you look down, you can see the Washington Monument,” Steil told Joshua from a balcony overlooking Capitol Hill.

What You Need To Know

  • Eight works of art by Wisconsin students are now hanging inside the U.S. Capitol

  • The pieces were selected in the annual Congressional Art Competition

  • Joshua Utley, a rising senior at The Prairie School in Racine, won for Rep. Bryan Steil's district

  • The Janesville Republican met with Utley and his parents last week in Washington

Joshua attends The Prairie School in Racine. His work will be displayed in the Capitol for one year, along with hundreds of winners from other congressional offices.

“I've always drawn a lot,” he said. “I do some musical stuff too, but I always liked drawing.”

Each spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors a visual art competition for high school students. More than 650,000 young artists have participated since the competition began in 1982. Each winner receives two roundtrip tickets to travel to Washington for the Winner’s Celebration and a chance to meet with their representative. 

“That's my walk from the office to the Capitol that I take a number of times a day,” Steil said. “Not only do I get to look at the art from Joshua, but from students across the state and across the country. And it's a real statement of the creativity and the talent that we have.” 

Joshua said his graphite piece was inspired by reading about how the Spanish brought cattle to Mexico in the 1500s, and another story that included a cow creature. The title is, “Cow in the Way.” 

“I was thinking about there being a thing in your face that you don’t really want, and you kind of want the stuff behind it. Because, if it’s a cow’s face, you don’t eat that, just the meat behind it,” Joshua said. “There’s something in the way of what you’re trying to get to.”

Joshua said he plans to take some art history classes in college, but he’s not sure of the career path he wants to take yet. He said art has been valuable to him.

“Folks that excel in the STEM space, those that are creative, really bring us the new and generative technology that makes our lives easier and better,” Steil said. “So, it’s a combination, in many ways, of the creativity that is inherent and natural in art, combined with the other skill sets students are learning at school.”

Steil said cows are an important symbol of Wisconsin—America’s Dairyland—and this piece is a reminder of where home is.

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