Waldron Art Center celebrates, honors Youth Art Month

Community members poured into the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center’s Youth Art Month reception Friday.

This March marks the 39th partnership between student art and education at the Monroe County Community School Corporation.

“We partner with the MCCSC every March and give them almost all of our gallery space,” Gallery Director Julie Roberts said.

Roberts said Waldron provided the gallery space and refreshments, but art teachers curated the galleries.

Student artwork spanned three floors. The first floor Education Gallery featured drawings, paintings and photographs.

Jane Reeves, photography and art teacher at Tri-North Middle School, said it’s important for the community to see what art students are doing.

“We’re about the only middle school I’ve ever heard of that (has) a photography class,” Reeves said. “Almost all the eighth graders signed up. We had to get a grant and more equipment.”

The Rosemary P. Miller Gallery, located on the second floor, was the most impressive. Student artwork on display ranged from stained glass to jewelry to a bust of Lucille Ball.

One painting in particular, titled “Missing,” gave a visual pop to the middle of the room.
The head of a young boy was stenciled onto the canvas nine times in varying primary-color combinations. A prominent missing figure or object protruded from each open cranium, including aviator Amelia Earhart.

Across the hall in a second-floor classroom, Ivy Tech volunteers helped children make necklaces, patches and ornaments from small squares of fabric.

“We met with WonderLab staff and went over their theme,” Roberts said. “This month, it’s the science of quilting. We wanted to come up with something that would also be fun, but not duplicate what they were doing.”

Ivy Tech student ambassador Stefany Terrell said the activity was also to raise awareness for Ivy Arts for Kids, a youth summer camp offered through Ivy Tech’s Center for Lifelong Learning.

Down the hall in the Treasurer’s Gallery, IU graduate student Aimee Denault celebrated the opening reception of her show “Union and Disunion.” The exhibit featured her lithographs and delicate drawings.

“Everything here is printed by hand,” Denault said. “They’re printed on a press, and they have multiple images. These are lithographs in the middle, and the back wall is screen-printed.”

Her exhibit will be on display for the rest of Youth Art Month, which ends April 1.

“We’re fortunate compared to a lot of schools and counties around us,” Reeves said. “There’s a strong arts community here, and there’s a strong arts program at the schools. It’s a wonderful thing.”