Art gallery exhibit at mall puts students’ talent in perspective

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Art Instructor, Mary Beth Wensel, Supervisor, Michele Krisher, and Art Instructor, Kathy Young, stand along a sculpture made by students from Trumbull Co. Educational Service Center Arts Excel in the Arts Outreach Center at Eastwood on Sunday afternoon.

By Jordan Cohen

The exhibit will run through March 23.

NILES — Call them emerging talents whose creativity is expressed in paintings, pencil sketches and sculptures. One more thing makes these budding artists unusual: They’re all between the ages of 11 and 14.

Middle-school students from 19 schools in Trumbull County submitted artwork for an exhibit that opened Sunday at the Art Outreach Gallery in Eastwood Mall. The program, sponsored by the Arts/EXCEL program of the Trumbull County Educational Service Center, is designed for students who have talent or interest in pursuing the arts.

“However, we don’t stipulate that they must be gifted,” said Michele Krisher, an Arts/EXCEL supervisor of gifted programs.

Krisher said Arts/EXCEL, a consortium of the 19 schools, also includes dance, drama, instrumental and vocal music.

“There is a continued need for this type of program since so many schools have trouble financing it,” Krisher said. She explained that Arts/EXCEL students are bused to the YWCA in Warren on Fridays to spend the day developing their interests.

Alexandra Prox, 11, a fifth-grader from Bonham School, Niles, displayed a modernistic pencil sketch, which she feels is just the beginning.

“I want to do large painting on a canvas,” said Alexandra, who enjoyed showing her work and said she wants to keep drawing.

Christian Alston, a seventh-grader from LaBrae Middle School, described his artwork in terms that go beyond his age of 13.

“I like the shading of darks and whites that make things stand out in a pencil sketch, but I work in color as well,” he said.

Christian has two works on display, one of which is an abstract drawing of various green shapes.

“I call it ‘A Place To Get To,’” Christian said.

Arkansas (pronounced R-Kansas) Lickwar, from Lordstown Middle School, has the unusual perspective of being both artist and model. In addition to presenting her highway landscape drawn on a candy cane box, she posed for several drawings by her fellow students.

“I don’t know if I’d do this as a career,” the 12-year-old said, “but I like painting or working with clay.”

In addition to sketches and paintings, some of the students displayed several types of sculpture in the form of animals, plates, a pizza and an African woman with a water basket on her head.

“One is called Soft Stone Carving [done with tools] and another is Salt Dough Sculpture, which they model much like clay,” said Kathy Young, an Arts/EXCEL artist and instructor. Young also pointed out a sculpture attached to the ceiling consisting only of coat hangers.

“They found these hangers in a back room and decided to make this,” Young said. “Just give them junk and they’ll make something.”

The exhibit will be on display at the gallery until March 23. Arts/EXCEL’s performing artists will demonstrate their musical skills in an evening concert April 24 in Champion.