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Artists present holiday showcase at Expo Center
By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK
NILES
Young artists filled the Eastwood Expo Center with music, dance and visual arts.
About 30 visual artists and 300 performing artists, all 26 or younger, participated in the Art Outreach Gallery’s first holiday showcase Saturday.
“This event is a celebration of youth in the arts in our area,” said Mark Vivacqua, gallery vice chairman.
Visual artists sold their crafts at the showcase. Various media were represented, including jewelry, paintings, pencil sketches, ceramics and pen-and-ink drawings.
Gretchen Fusselman, a 15-year-old from Niles McKinley High School, brought her handmade jewelry to the show.
Fusselman has been making jewelry for about a year. She offered necklaces and bracelets for sale.
“This is my first time selling jewelry. I never had the opportunity to do so until now,” she said.
In the first portion of the festival, Fusselman sold two pieces.
Joe Perry, a 21-year-old Youngstown State University student, also sold two pieces Saturday.
“I do a lot of painting,” he said. “But a lot of the stuff seen here is prints.”
Perry got started as an artist when he was in first or second grade. He mimicked cartoons but began creating his own works by high school. He first picked up a paintbrush in college, and that’s become his niche.
He plans to be an art teacher.
The festival is a great opportunity for visual and performing artists, Perry said.
“The idea that they’re giving this kind of opportunity is a wonderful idea,” he added. “It’s been going really well.”
Also included in the festival are musical and dance performances.
Rowan Welsh, 3, danced as the Youngstown Connection sang.
The event was fun, Welsh said. He said he wasn’t sure what his favorite part was, but he liked the music.
Welsh attended with his father, Brian Bathory of Austintown.
“I like art and I like music,” Bathory said. “I was just going to do some shopping, and I drove by and saw the sign for it.”
He didn’t get any shopping done, he noted, but he was able to enjoy art and music.
“And that’s way better,” Bathory said.
Jenna Gebhardt, 7, of Howland, has been dancing most of her life. Her mom helped her touch-up her lipstick as she waited for her turn to perform a jazz routine with other dancers from James Dance & Performance Arts Center in Howland.
“I think [the festival’s] awesome,” Jenna said.
The festival continues from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today. Included are performances by the Niles McKinley Christmas Band Ensemble, Ally Dean, R.E.D.S. Tuba Quartet, Ashley Moore, Youngstown Connection and Boardman High School Jazz Band.