May is Student Art Month at the Mesquite Fine Arts Gallery. All month, the entire gallery was devoted to displaying artwork created by students from Virgin Valley Elementary, JL Bowler Elementary, Beaver Dam Elementary and Virgin Valley High School. On Thursday, May 4, a reception was held to celebrate the young artists.
The gallery was so full of wonderful artwork that they held the goodie portion of the reception in the classroom and left the gallery clear for visitors to wander around while admiring the talent that was everywhere the eye wandered. The volunteers who set up the reception not only provided a great variety of tasty treats, they offered tables covered in white paper, pens, markers and an assortment of mediums to inspire everyone to create while they ate.
A vivid display of color covered every available space the gallery had to offer in a variety of common mediums along with some that weren’t so common including some “Recycled” mediums.
According to the Virgin Valley Artist’s Association, “The Virgin Valley schools are fortunate to have art included in their curriculum, a circumstance that is not the case in many public schools across the nation. Despite studies that show that students who study the arts are more likely to complete high school than those who do not, elective arts programs are often cut from the curriculum, and even at Virgin Valley High School students must pay special fees to enroll in art class, forensics (debate), choir, band, and many other essential subjects. In Nevada, where the high school graduation rate is the lowest in the nation, the presence of art education in school is at least one beacon of hope, but the required fees for attendance sometime discourages students from enrolling.”
To show support for student artists, Virgin Valley Artists Association invites each school in the valley to display classroom art at the gallery each May. With that invitation goes a check for $150 to each school to pay for the mounting and hanging materials needed to show the student’s work.
For more information on future, monthly exhibits, contact the Mesquite Fine Arts Center at 702-346-1338 or stop by the gallery Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
I enjoyed this article. Mesquite should be proud of this activity and I applaud the focus on the arts in the community and in schools. It pays off mightily.