IU Art Museum displays MCCSC student artwork for Youth Art Month

In honor of Youth Art Month, the IU Art Museum is displaying artwork from students in the Monroe County Community School Corporation.

The exhibit is located on the second floor in the Thomas T. Solley Atrium, outside the museum’s café, and includes artwork from students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
IU graduate student Yizhi Luo was one of multiple volunteers to assist in constructing the displays.

“The artworks with different subject matters and various display forms gave me an insight into the world from a kid’s eye,” Luo said. “It’s wonderful to be reminded of the purest emotions and thoughts existing in the world. I really appreciated the exhibit.”

The Art Museum has partnered with local schools for 15 years for a collaboration that includes workshops and field trips allowing students to tour the museum.

Education Curator Ed Maxedon works closely with the schools to coordinate the Youth Art Month event.

“The works are selected and matted by the teachers and then sent over to me,” Maxedon said.

“With the help of volunteers, we label each piece with the name of the student and the school and then go through about a three-hour process of hanging and organizing the exhibit.”

The annual event allows each Monroe County school to submit nine to 10 pieces. The final exhibit is comprised of 122 pieces of culturally and historically diverse artwork, ranging from paintings of Abraham Lincoln to mosaics of famous architecture.

An art teacher at Rogers Elementary School for 15 years, Jan Barnes chooses her school’s pieces without knowing the names of the students to make unbiased decisions.

Barnes waits until well into second semester to choose the artwork because she said she has found the students produce their best work once they have learned to be disciplined in the classroom.

“When I’m choosing, I look for a picture that has a clear idea, one that is large, has lots of color and, most importantly, one that is completely finished,” Barnes said. “Students create artwork all the time outside of the classroom, but in here we are working toward a complete project.”

As part of the partnership between MCCSC and the Art Museum, an elementary curriculum was created that allows students to see real examples of art in the museum and then apply what they saw to their own work in the classroom.

“The education program at the Art Museum is excellent,” Barnes said. “The IU team is very approachable, and if we have an idea, they make it happen.”

To unveil the exhibit, there was a reception for all of the teachers, students and their families on March 3. Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan was in attendance and, as is tradition, presented all students with awards.

“This is easily one of the most popular exhibits that we host all year,” Maxedon said. “I am always impressed by what is submitted. The kids do some phenomenal work.”