By Dorie Spangler | Council on Culture & Arts
Youth Art Month in March is a colorful time for the Leroy Collins Main Library: walls are decorated from floor to ceiling with bright displays and rows of shelves are lined with ceramic sculptures and other three-dimensional art, all created by local elementary schoolers.
“I like to walk into the library and see how it’s lit up by all the colors,” says June Crouch, a fourth grader at Kate Sullivan Elementary, when asked about the exhibition. “You can look around and admire other people’s artwork, and if your friend’s here, you can go around and say, ‘oh, this one’s mine!’”
Youth Art Month at the Library invites elementary school art teachers in Leon County to select a sampling of pieces made in their classroom and display them for the public. Twenty-seven schools participated this year, with their receptions spread out over three days. Students, families, teachers, and the public were invited to these openings to admire the richness and diversity of techniques, artistry, and creative expression among local youth.
For many student artists, it will be the first time they see their art displayed in a space outside the home or classroom. At the March 10th reception, Khali Harris, a fifth grader at W.T. Moore Elementary, poses as her mother snaps a photo of her standing beside her drawing. According to Harris, her favorite part of the reception is “getting to show artwork to everybody that’s in the library.”
The assignment for students at W.T. Moore involved transforming their names into geometric designs. This activity helps students understand how simple elements such as the shapes of letters and contrasts in color can springboard a vivid and original work of art.
Other eye-catching displays in the Youth Art Month exhibit included Canopy Oaks’ mixed media neon space cats, medieval-themed playing cards and dragon eyes from Kate Sullivan Elementary, and Astoria Park’s dynamic 3D animal sculptures.
Many teachers took inspiration from notable artists of the past and present when crafting their assignments. Sealey Elementary’s display featured realistic fish drawings and paintings inspired by the works of Diedrick Brackens and Nina Chanel Abney. Gilchrist Elementary showcased four-quadrant Andy Warhol inspired self-portraits, while Sabal Palm Elementary’s self-portraits took cues from contemporary artist Bisa Butler, who blends photography, painting, and other forms of media to create vibrant, layered depictions of her subjects.
Lesley Taylor, Art Teacher at DeSoto Trail Elementary, uses lessons from famous artists such as Basquiat, Jim Dine, and Picasso when teaching her students about pastels, colors, and contour lines. She has participated in Youth Art Month with DeSoto for the past four years, and gushes about her students’ various projects at the reception. When asked how she chooses which student drawings and paintings to showcase, Taylor explains “It’s so hard. I’ve got over 600 kids, so like six per grade level. I try to spread it out so each level has the same representation.”
“I’m definitely excited whenever I can show students’ art that don’t have as many opportunities to get recognized,” shares Jason McMillan Art Teacher at W.T. Moore Elementary and Youth Art Coordinator of Youth Art Month. Having organized the event for the past twenty years, he has a passion for uplifting and spotlighting as many students as possible. McMillan rotates display areas every year so that each school has an opportunity to exhibit in the more prominent spaces. His hard work results in stunning exhibitions, proud parents, and energized teachers.
“My favorite part of Youth Art Month is the community involvement,” says Lesley Taylor. “It’s just really neat, that we have this art opening for the artists and also for the community, to come in and really get to see what all the elementary art rooms are doing and delve into all the creativity. I know, as an art teacher, it’s really inspiring to see what other art rooms are up to.”
McMillan echoes that teachers gain interesting ideas for new techniques and lesson plans from seeing the projects displayed by their colleagues. Elementary art teachers in Tallahassee have an especially strong sense of community, as they meet together monthly to share classroom tips, teaching methods, resources, and development opportunities. It is at these meetings that McMillan does a bulk of the coordinating for Youth Art Month. This sense of community encourages a supportive and positive environment for hardworking teachers:
“I think that we all kind of feel like we look at each other’s artwork going, ‘oh, yours is the best.’ ‘No, yours is the best,’” explains McMillan.
At the end of the day, the teachers put a great amount of effort into events like this because they love to see their students grow, both as artists, and as young people learning how to demonstrate confidence in the wider world.
“It makes them proud to have their artwork in here,” says McMillan of his students’ exhibit.
With such a vast array of artistic techniques and mediums on display, ranging from oil pastels to mixed media portraiture, to ceramics, watercolor, and paper cut-outs, the students have good reason to be proud. Looking around the reception, the library is full of similar scenes; elementary school children with great big smiles on their faces, posing in front of their own original art pieces with their teachers or families or both. Though Youth Art Month is the culmination of many lessons spanning many classrooms, one overarching message rings true during the reception: that art brings people together.
The schools that participated in this year’s Youth Art Month were:
Desoto Trail, Chaires, Gilchrist, Gretchen Everhart, Hartsfield, Astoria Park, WT Moore, Ft. Braden, Riley, Canopy Oaks, Pineview, Springwood, Buck Lake, Ruediger, SASC, Bond, Conley, Apalachee, TSMS, Killearn Lakes, Oakridge, Sabal Palm, Woodville, Kate Sullivan, Sealey, Roberts, Hawks Rise
To learn more about programs at the Leroy Collins Leon County Public Library, visit their website at: https://cms.leoncountyfl.gov/library
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