Students of the Veterans Memorial High School are preparing for their first large-scale, public winter art show at the Main Branch of the city’s library, which will take place on Feb. 18.
Traditionally, the art show was done at the high school at the end of the school year, said Katy Millman, chair of the high school’s visual arts department.
“Considering there hasn’t been a traditional art show for the last two years, it was kind of a good opportunity (for us) to pivot and try something totally new,” said Millman.
The show will feature about 350 pieces of art created in different mediums and by artists of different experience levels. Visitors can expect to see drawings, paintings, ceramic art and sculpture, photography and graphic design pieces, all created by students enrolled in PVMHS art classes in the first semester of the current school year.
Students of the culinary program will provide refreshments for the event, while performing-arts students will host an acoustic coffee house the same night.
“We’re trying to make it a bigger event,” said Millman. “To give them more of a traditional art opening experience.”
The goal of hosting the show outside of the high school campus is also to attract a broader audience.
“It gives our students a chance to show off what they’ve been working on all semester to the town, to their loved ones, to the community,” said Sara Steffensmeir, art teacher.
High school senior Sarah Trottier ― who took digital photography, graphic design and TV-production classes ― said she likes the art program at the school because the classes are held in a very relaxed atmosphere and they provide her with an opportunity to be creative.
“You can come in and it’s not like you have to get everything correct,” said Trottier. “It is more like you need to make something with your best effort, (something) that will come out and look as best as you can, that works for you.”
Many students who come to PVMHS art classes are not used to using their hands or even scissors, said ceramics, sculpture and street art teacher Melissa Silveira Guimarães.
“They’re so intimidated by just making their hands do what their heads are thinking,” she said.
“These kids are not going to go on to be ceramicists, obviously, but I think learning to work with your hands and solving 3D problems and being innovative and artistic thinkers and understanding how a 2D shape can become a 3D form, thinking outside the box creates a really strong foundation.”
Silveira Guimarães believes that students can go off in whatever direction they choose with such a foundation and become a successful part of the art world. Art classes also teach students to be social, have group conversations, comment on each other’s work, walk up to a peer and ask a question, share, learn from mistakes and experiment, Silveira Guimarães said.
“They feel liberated here,” said Silveira Guimarães. “They’re a little safer and comfortable and calm.”
The Peabody Veterans Memorial Winter Art Show will be on display at the main branch of the Peabody Institute Library, at 82 Main St., on Feb. 18 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
