Kids’ art spotlighted in Carnegie exhibit

Little artists are getting big artist treatment at the Carnegie Arts Center.

The downtown Turlock center is presenting its first children’s art exhibition, “Ready, Set, Show!” running now through the summer, featuring the works of those in kindergarten through eighth grade. The fledgling artist works are displayed in the museum-quality space at the Carnegie’s Ferrari Gallery.

A reception will be held Friday, May 22, for the artists, their families and the public.

“The work is a great variety, including paintings, drawings, watercolors, photographs, sculpture and ceramics, and even a couple of quilts,” Carnegie director Lisa McDermott said in an email interview. “The kids range in age from 5-13 ... so some is really basic and fun, other pieces are definitely more sophisticated; many show that kids are looking at important/historical artists and learning from them.”

McDermott said highlighting young artists has been on the Carnegie’s agenda since the venue reopened in 2011 after a fire destroyed the original historic building.

“We think the elementary school art show is something that has been missing in Turlock; Modesto has had a couple of different youth art shows going on for many years, but we wanted to do something for the smaller communities around Turlock,” she said. “The Carnegie had a tradition of hosting a youth art show in partnership with the Turlock elementary schools going back more than 20 years, but those had stopped by the time of the fire in 2005, partly because of the amount of work it required from teachers to put it on. High school students have had a show in Turlock for a long time, also put on by the art teachers in the region. Now that we have more staff and volunteers – and a lot more space! – a show for and about kids was high on my list of projects.”

Response has been positive, with more than 105 pieces created by 95 artists received over a recent weekend. The center limited entries to a maximum of three per child, McDermott said, with second and third pieces from the same child submitted in different media.

“For a first show of this kind, I am very pleased with the entries,” she added. “We have works made by kids from Turlock, Hilmar, Ceres, Denair, Winton, Cressey, Delhi, Stevinson and Hughson.”

McDermott said they announced the show with fliers that went out through the Turlock schools and by email to teachers in other districts. “The entries were delivered by parents for the most part, though we did have a few schools that entered class work (including Hilmar Middle School and Walnut Elementary in Turlock),” she said. “We really didn’t want to limit the entries to schools since we know that not all the area’s schools have the time and resources to be creating art in their classrooms. Our goal is to reinforce how important the arts can be for kids, whether done through school or encouraged at home.”

The outreach has proved beneficial.

“The proud parents who brought work in were very happy that we are doing a show like this. It is such a great community-building opportunity. I know we’ve gotten artwork from children who have taken art classes here at the Carnegie, but we also have had parents coming in who had not yet visited the Carnegie before,” McDermott said. “It will be great for them and their kids to see the works hanging in the same gallery where Picasso was shown just two years ago.”

Everything entered will be displayed and although it is not a competition, three experienced art teachers will place recognition stickers for individual works that show quality and creativity. “We decided not to make this a competition; I really want to reinforce the benefits of making art without the pressure of being rejected, or winning, or comparative judging. The goal is much more about acknowledging creativity and process,” McDermott said.

Fostering the arts in youths is part of the Carnegie’s mission.

“We do a regular Family Friday event once each month that brings families in to get creative together. It is something we’ve been doing for four years and interest in those events has continued to grow,” McDermott said. “Some months the event is focused on dance or music or theater, but we always try to have some kind of visual art component as well. And of course we’ve been offering art and dance classes for kids since we opened the new Carnegie in 2011.

“Some of the pieces in the show will be by kids who have taken our classes,” she added, “and we are very proud of that.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2015 at 11:04 AM with the headline "Kids’ art spotlighted in Carnegie exhibit."