Boston Area Library Creates Youth Art Gallery

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This month, a library in suburban Boston is demonstrating how libraries are working with their communities to involve young people in the arts.

The Newton Free Library in Newton, Mass., is opening its new Young Adult Gallery, the fruit of a partnership with the art departments of the two local high schools, Newton North and Newton South, with support from a local business and two community arts-based organizations.

The opening show, which is currently on view through spring 2011, is titled Prints and Painting from Newton North High School.

The featured works were taken from two distinct high school assignments:

One of these assignments was literally home grown. Students from teacher Shannon Slattery’s Art Major 2 and Art Minor 2-3 classes were asked to draw a view from the window of each student’s house. The students chose images of nature, focusing on texture, composition and their connection to the scene before them. The drawings were then turned into a reduction linoleum block print. In the prints each color is a separate layer, with the block "reduced" on each run to allow previous colors to show through. The students were encouraged to experiment with various color combinations and to bring out the textures from their original drawings.

The other assignment was not as close to home. Students from teacher Sandra Truant’s class took their inspiration from the Dutch still life painters. They studied the work of Pieter Claesz of Haarlem, one of the first Antwerp artists to paint what are known as “breakfast pieces,” still lifes depicting both the ingredients and settings for breakfast. Students were asked to bring in the makings of their favorite breakfast to create a still life painting. The assignment included a field trip to visit the Museum of Fine Arts to view the actual paintings by Claesz as well as many other Dutch painters.

Ellen Meyers, director of programs and communications for the Newton Free Library, said that after the library, using grant dollars, opened a dedicated young adult space, she remembered having been asked by one of her colleagues if the library could somehow showcase the artwork of local students somewhere in the library.

Last year, she approached her director about creating a young adult gallery adjacent to the young adult area. Her aim was to give the artists from the two local high schools an opportunity to show their work in a professional gallery space. She also hoped the project would foster in the kids a continuing love of - and involvement with the library - as they grow older.

Fortunately, the library benefited from existing relationships with local schools.

“We have ongoing relationships through various departments in the library with our local school system. Certainly the children’s department works with the elementary schools, and we have two young adult librarians that work with the high schools,” she said.

Meyers said she originally intended to choose the art through an official juried process as is the case with the two professional adult galleries that the library has.

“But upon meeting with the heads of the art departments of the two high schools, we realized that given the pressure and time constraints that these kids have, that it would be better to work with the high school teachers,” she said.

Two teachers from the new North High School decided which images would be displayed in the gallery's first show.

Another hurdle involved presenting the art in a professional way. Meyers said she approached a local businessman, Eric Blomster of Abraxis Framing Co., who not only provided the frames for the first show free of charge, but also plans to let the students take home their framed artwork. Blomster will also be providing frames free of charge for subsequent shows.

She said the frames made all the difference in the look of the linoleum block prints.

In addition, Meyers said she reached out to two local arts-based non-profit organizations to get volunteers to help hang the art.

In addition, a local grocer, Whole Foods Market, will be providing the refreshments for the opening reception which took place on Saturday, Oct. 16 from 3 - 4 p.m. The local newspaper, the Newton TAB, ran a full-page feature article on the exhibit and opening this week, and the local Community Cable Access TV station, NewTV, covered the opening reception for a spot on "Newton News."

One of the teachers, Slattery, is enthusiastic about the project for the exposure it gives the students. “I’m always looking for opportunities to get people to see what we’re doing and what the art students at our high school are capable of. Having a public forum for that is just excellent. It’s an award-winning library, so a lot of people are going through there to see the artwork.”

The kids, she said, are also excited. “They were very proud to have their work not just hung on the walls of the school, where the audience is contained, but to be in a public venue.”

She said it also means a lot to the students to have the work professionally framed and then given for them to take home. "Some of these have probably never had a piece of their artwork professionally framed like that.”

Images:

Image #1: N. Robinson

Image #2: A. Greenberg

Image #3: E. Rosenfield

Slideshow image: D. Choa