Student artwork on display at Stanislaus County Office of Education

Student artists take the spotlight this month with the Making Arts Learning Visible exhibit on view through April 1 at the Stanislaus County Office of Education downtown.

An artists’ reception Monday night brought student dancers from Whitmore Charter in Ceres, the Johansen High Jazz Combo and the Gregori High String Quartet of Modesto to perform for an appreciative audience of educators and families.

“This is phenomenal. You see how much creative skill is here,” said Whitmore Charter art teacher Amy Zschyaber.

A tongue-tied 6-year-old Isaiah Galvan just grinned ear to ear when asked about his owl painting. Isaiah and his class have been studying owls, said mom Zaira Galvan of Salida.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Galvan said of the show. “It brings the kids closer to everything they do.”

The educationally interpretive exhibition marks Youth Arts Month at the county office headquarters at 11th and H streets. The exhibit is open during office hours, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The show features student work from preschool to high school across Region 6, which covers Stanislaus, Amador, Calaveras, San Joaquin and Tuolumne counties.

“Making it possible for viewers to see the connection between thinking and making is what this exhibition intends to achieve,” said Cheri Lloyd, project coordinator at SCOE.

“The work selected illustrates not individual students’ talent, but the forms of thinking that are used in the creation of their artwork. Art making is not simply a pleasant break from the work of other disciplines; art making can and does evoke and refine forms of thinking that other activities do not,” she said.

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Student artwork on display at Stanislaus County Office of Education."