 Miranda Earley (left) and Evelyn Sabina, education staff members at The
Quick Center, prepare pieces for inclusion in the 2013 Middle School
Juries Exhibition, which opens March 6. Sabina holds a piece by Kaira
Thaler of Clymer Central School, one of three Juror’s Choice winners. |
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., March 1, 2013 — Young artists from 18 schools across the region will display their works in the 2013 Middle School Juried Exhibition, which opens with a reception at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.
Jurors selected 81 pieces from more than 300 entries for framing and hanging in the Quick Center’s Mezzanine Gallery.
Education coordinators at The Quick Center always look forward to the annual exhibition, particularly the opening reception, when the student-artists are celebrated by family and friends.
“It’s nice to see so many proud parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors, teachers and school administrators at the opening,” said Evelyn Sabina, curator of education at The Quick Center. “It’s quite a showing of schools, students and teachers, and it’s encouraging to see the level of support there is in the community for art education in our schools.”
The art includes mostly two-dimensional pieces in various media including pastels, charcoal, watercolor, acrylic, graphite and photography, said Miranda Earley, museum educator. There are also three-dimensional pieces in ceramic, cardboard and paper-mache.
Each of the three jurors selected one exceptional piece from among the entries for a Juror’s Choice Award. Winners of those awards are Noah Howard, a seventh-grader from Oswayo Valley Middle School; Ngoc Ngo, a sixth-grader at Olean Middle School; and Kaira Thaler, an eighth-grader at Clymer Central School.
Jurors for the exhibition were Melissa Meyers, who has an art degree from Buffalo State College and owns The Ink Well, an art supply store in Allegany; Robert Prince from Olean, a senior visual arts major at St. Bonaventure; and Terri Balthazard of Olean, who has a degree in fine art from the University of Hawaii. Balthazard is the wife of St. Bonaventure School of Business Dean Pierre Balthazard.
“Selecting the 81 pieces for the show and the three Juror’s Choice Awards was really difficult given the quality of the works submitted,” said Earley. “We appreciate the time and effort our jurors put into the process.”
A special honor, the Quick Art Teacher Award, will go to one of the 27 art teachers whose students’ work is being exhibited. The award will be presented at the opening reception.
“The award is meant to recognize the hard work of all the teachers and to celebrate one in particular,” said Sabina. “We couldn’t do this exhibition without their help and support, and they should be applauded for the work they do.”
Each of the students in the exhibition receives a coupon for a free sketch book from The Ink Well and a packet of note cards with their art reproduced on the front of each card.
The exhibition runs through April 5.
The Quick Center galleries are open to the public year round at no charge. The center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, go to www.sbu.edu/quickcenter.
About the University: As a leading Catholic Franciscan University, St. Bonaventure University cultivates graduates who are confident and creative communicators, collaborative leaders and team members, and innovative problem solvers who are respectful of themselves, others, and the diverse world around them. We are establishing pathways to internships, graduate schools and careers. Our students are becoming extraordinary.