This Thursday, March 6 marked the opening of the Grinnell High School (GHS) and Grinnell Middle School (GMS) student exhibition hosted by the Grinnell Arts Center Gallery. The exhibition is scheduled to run until Thursday, March 27 and is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon.
An official reception was held on Thursday evening, giving students and their families a chance to celebrate the gallery’s opening.
Grinnell Area Arts Council (GAAC) Arts Director Mary Rellergert ’13 described the ceremony as a chance for attendees to interact with the young artists.
“People are welcome to wander, to talk to the artists who are present … We have refreshments available so people can sort of eat and view the artwork and just sort of mingle and talk to each other,” she said.
A similar closing ceremony will be held on Thursday, March 27 to recognize exceptional students and their work.
The exhibit boasts a wide array of student work from grades five through 12. Students from the middle school have submitted work utilizing chalk and oil pastels, tempera paint and graphite, while the high school students contributed displays of ceramics, digital photos, portraits and even photo silk screen prints.
Most of the work in the exhibit is taken from students enrolled in the various art classes offered by GMS and GHS. However, there are some independent submissions from students as well. GHS offers various dual-credit art class options that provide students with the opportunity to obtain college credit, while still maintaining a certain amount of creative license.
“[The dual-credit art classes] are something that’s been independent. They kind of write their own syllabus … Most projects that they do … are problem solving, so it’s what they do with the criteria that we give them,” said Janet Ahrens, an art teacher at GHS.
Deb Yellick-Manly, an art teacher at GHS, hopes that this sample of student artwork will showcase a diversity that demonstrates the progressive evolution of the school’s art program.
“Usually people comment that they are so surprised with the broad range that the students have the opportunity to experience and … opportunities to work with so many different art mediums,” Yellick-Manly said. “That is so different than some people recall their art experience being and I think that’s a real strong part of the program.”
Besides hosting the annual GMS/GHS exhibit, the Arts Council also provides a number of services and opportunities for members of the community of all ages, such as the ongoing Intro to Stage Directing workshop, a series of classes taught by Sandy Moffett and Tom Lacina.
“The Arts Council oversees about 10 different arts programs in the community and the gallery is one of those 10,” Rellergert said. “We try to incorporate and inter-revolve our programs. We also have arts academy classes for toddlers through adults.”
