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Art works by more than 20 local high school students are on display through July 29 in a special exhibition at the Grossman Gallery in the Williams Visual Arts Building.
The High School Artists’ Showcase is part of Lafayette’s Community-Based Teaching program and will feature a variety of works ranging from painting to video to installations. Student work for the showcase was solicited and chosen through an open call sent out to local high schools. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and there will be a public reception June 20 from 5-6:30 p.m.
“This program and show promote community relationships and arts in the area,” says Jim Toia, director of the Grossman Gallery and the Community-Based Teaching program. “We are concerned with the lack of support the arts get as students reach high school and budgets continue to be cut. The first thing to suffer is the arts.”
The Community-Based Teaching program provides a way to combat this trend. Toia presents lectures and provides studio time for high school students from Phillipsburg and Belvidere, N.J. every Tuesday and Thursday and an evening class once a week, which draws students from Easton, Palmer, and beyond.
Students have also been able to meet and work with local and regional artists both in the classroom and in their personal studios. Allison Thompson ’08 (Saddle River, N.J.), a double major in art and English, serves as Toia’s Community-Based Teaching assistant and is involved with the high school sessions.
Toia’s summer gallery assistants, Shiliang Cui ’09 (Shanghai, China), who is pursuing an A.B. in economics and business and a B.S. in mathematics, and Chutima Tontarawongsa ’09 (Chachoengsao, Thailand), an economics and business major, helped with exhibit preparation work and installation and are monitoring the gallery.
“This program provides [high school] students with a place and a chance to indulge in their interests, meet active practicing professional artists, meet other students in the area who have similar interests, and develop their portfolio,” says Toia. “All this helps develop their aesthetic vision and understanding and can help increases their chance of gaining scholarship to an arts program in college, which many have gotten as a result of our classes.”