LYNN — Visitors to the Demakes Family YMCA this summer will be able to enjoy art created by participants at Northeast Arc’s community art center, ArcWorks.
Twelve of ArcWorks’ artists have work on display, including paintings and collages with subjects ranging from animals to people to cartoon characters. The works were created during the pandemic when the program’s classes were run over Zoom, as well as in the studio since it reopened in September.
“The good side of COVID was that people really worked very hard on their artwork, because there wasn’t a lot to do,” said Susan Dodge, director of ArcWorks.
Northeast Arc provides programming and resources for people with developmental and physical disabilities. The ArcWorks Community Art Center, located in Peabody, provides art classes and programming.
Dodge explained that the participants in the YMCA exhibition are part of the organization’s pre-employment program, and want to explore art as a career. They take classes to learn artistic skills and techniques and visit galleries to learn more about opportunities to show and sell their work. Participants’ work has also been shown and sold at local galleries and restaurants.
“We try to get their work out there,” Dodge said.
Meghan Scire of Lynn has 11 pieces on display at the Y, including three paintings of foxes and three collages. Scire said she has been taking classes at ArcWorks for two years, and enjoys drawing and painting scenery and sometimes people.
“I draw on my own for fun,” she said. “Painting is harder because I’m still learning.”
Mike Butler of Danvers, another of the artists, said that he enjoys painting and often uploads his work to the website DeviantArt, a community for digital artists. He said he enjoys the challenge of trying different styles of art.
Butler’s paintings on view at the YMCA show trains, dinosaurs and cartoon characters of which the artist is a fan.
“Art can have its own twists and turns, whether you’re inspired by a song or something that happened in your life,” he said. “I like to go through the obscure routes and things you don’t expect to see.”
Other artists with work on view are Arelis O’Neal of Lynn, Kara Moccia of Peabody, Alyssa Taylor of Salem, Polyvios Christoforos of Salem, Greg Marcheterre of Danvers, Leia Brown of Wakefield, Holly Harrison of Gloucester, Elizabeth Chaisson of Gloucester, Ryan Casavant of Stoneham and Alisha Spires of Lexington.
The ArcWorks show will be on view at the YMCA through the end of August.
