Lovejoy Visual Arts (LJVA) is hoping to portray a student voice tomorrow for their second annual exhibition. With works from art 1, art 2 and AP art on display in the E hall gallery, the exhibition will open with a celebration Thursday, Nov. 8, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. featuring the selected artists and “light gallery fare.”
The juried exhibition will remain open to the public in the gallery during school hours until Nov. 16. The exhibition is curated by seniors Sarah Nash and Katie Miller.
“It really is just a showcase of what is happening so far,” Nash said. “Last year we did it in the spring time so there was a lot more work to pull from. The Water Show took place of what’s happening right now last year.”
The selected works span across all the visual art courses.
“It’s a huge celebration I would say, just of the LJVA program and how hard these kids have been working, even so early in the year,” Miller said. “Just celebrating all the work they have done, all the successes and even small learning curves, for us and for them.”
What is usually a teacher-led event has been handed over to the senior pair by district visual art coordinator Brice McCasland.
“Because there’s so much that goes into this, and it’s a lot of trust and reliability to know that it’s going to turn out right, it is an interesting experience to hand off,” McCasland said. “To be quite honest, it isn’t something I can just hand to anybody. So there is a huge amount of trust and a mutual respect to where I know I can demand a lot, and also know I can help. It’s a pretty cool transition to watch my kids become what I would consider my peers.”
As co-curators, Nash and Miller have been working to whittle down the selections to what McCasland called an “intimate amount” of pieces, 45 works in all. From jurying the art to mounting the work and statements on the wall, these two seniors are anxiously awaiting the opening of the exhibit.
“It’s just like when you go to a museum,” McCasland said. “You don’t think about the fact that people are actually in charge of preparing and framing and hanging everything. You just go and you’re fed. It’s like showing up to a buffet.”
McCasland added that Nash and Miller’s behind-the-scenes contributions make the whole show “so much more beautiful.”
“They don’t hang it so they get a reward or so that people go, ‘Wow. You did that?’” McCasland said. “They do it because they believe in this program. And they believe in legacy and they believe that their work, along with everyone else’s, is only a part of that legacy.”
