COOS BAY — The size of it can be daunting.

When the Coos Art Museum opens its walls to public submissions, a healthy turnout can be expected. But when more than 1,200 pieces of artwork came in for the Biennial Student Art Exhibit, the museum got a little more than it bargained for.

“This is the biggest challenge I’ve ever had,” said Karen Hammer, director of art education at the museum, as she worked on hanging the pieces, more than a thousand of them in a single room. “I’ve seen some shows that were hung pretty tight, when they had the old public hanging, but even those were nothing like this. About the only thing that’s left is the ceiling.”

The exhibit, which opens today, is a record for the museum — probably by about 200 hundred pieces, Hammer said. And despite the extra work and inevitably busy appearance, Hammer and museum Director Stephen Broocks said they are delighted with the turnout from 23 local schools for the sixth iteration of the exhibit since 1995.

“It’s for the kids,” Hammer said, describing the free exhibit as a public service. “It’s our way to try to keep art alive in the schools.”

The vast quantity of student-created art on display — nearly twice as much as the 2006 show — is a testament to the success of that effort, she said.

Occasionally there is a large group piece surrounded by smaller individual works, but for the most part, the sight in the Maggie Karl Gallery is row after row of similarly sized pieces, a dozen or two versions of each class project.

High school art, usually separately displayed in the Perkins Room Gallery, also overflows, taking over the Rental Sales Gallery, as well. But it is the lower grades occupying the main room that ran up the exhibit’s big numbers, with everything from the finger-painted heart cutouts of North Bay Elementary kindergartners to the impressionistic landscapes of Myrtle Point Junior High eighth-graders.

The projects are grouped by school and grade, making it easier for family members to find a particular child’s work, and though there is rarely separation between groups, many are instantly recognizable units — such as set of paintings of stenciled sea creatures by Blossom Gulch first-graders, which are unified by their purple backing paper. Elsewhere, use of purple ties together works by Bunker Hill second-graders.

Fourth-graders at Blossom Gulch were especially prolific, submitting a variety of projects including paintings of sunflowers, pieces featuring questions for the moon, abstract arrangements of boxes and stripes, mirroring construction paper cutouts and a few dioramas, which feature Indians defending a fort and other scenes of rustic pioneer life.

There are a few celebrities on hand: A Kingsview Christian School fifth-grader offers portraits of Hannah Montana and “High School Musical”’s Vanessa Hudgens (helpfully labeled “Vensa”), and among magazine covers designed by North Bend Middle School eighth-graders is a periodical devoted to the Jonas Brothers.

Another magazine cover, “Stupid Cars” by Jared Reichenberger, satirizes advertising-driven coverage of the automotive industry with teases to stories that are all conspicuously negative.

Among the more ambitious projects, Sunset Middle School seventh-graders made foam guitars. Hanging on a partition at the gallery’s entrance, the 26 of them form the largest sub-exhibit, which Hammer enhanced with a musical scale background wrapping around the wall. Display cases made by students of Gold Coast Christian School also show meticulous effort.

It takes a generous spirit to tell apart three-dimensional construction paper poinsettias by Kingsview first-graders, but sometimes the repetition helps an individual piece stand out. Amid a series of watercolors depicting barns by Riley Creek fifth-graders, Walter Falcon offers an interesting commentary on the urbanization of rural landscapes. Though his crayon and marker drawing is rough compared to the paintings, its message is clear: A colorful pastoral scene labeled “Then” contrasts a black-and-white “Now” featuring a gas station and a car dealer.

Among Lighthouse School fifth-graders’ watercolors of ancient pyramids, most use yellow and red, but Jacob Kyllo made the bold choice to go monochromatic. Nearby, a giant closeup of a flower by classmate Casssandra Thies, not apparently part of a group series, also attracts attention.

Especially not to be missed are “Teaching the Dog to Fly” by Millicoma Intermediate School fifth-grader Laura Garcia and “Boys Bathroom,” second-grader Ezra Leavitt’s homage to the most important room at Hillcrest Elementary School.

Among high school entries, Myrtle Point freshman Amanda Sturgill’s painting of a forest scene might have been an award winner if it were entered in the Vision high school art competition, another exhibit of student art upstairs at the museum.

The Vision exhibit, sponsored by the Southwestern Oregon Community College Foundation, features 98 works by 73 artists at 10 Southern Oregon high schools. At stake are 19 cash prizes and three tuition waivers to Southwestern. Along with past winners John Castaldi, a Bandon junior, and Marshfield senior Arielle Zamora, a pair of Brookings-Harbor juniors, Becky Chierichetti and Molly Moncrief, look to be competitive. Awards will be announced at today’s opening reception, which begins at 5 p.m.

The exhibits run through April 12, and admission is free for the duration. The Biennial is sponsored by the Coos County Cultural Coalition and the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation.