'With heart and hand'

Arts Place has its hands full.

More than 130 pieces of art created by elementary, middle and high school students from seven area counties will fill the galleries at Arts Place in Portland for the 2005 Regional Student Art Show.

“This (show) is building into a tradition,” Arts Place assistant director Karen Abbott said. For three years, she has been overseeing the show, which was held for at least 10 years before she began working for Arts Place.

The continuous growth of the art show, which opens Friday, has caused Abbott to reduce the number of pieces an art teacher can submit this year to seven per school instead of 10.

“This is another opportunity for kids to show their work. It’s in a real gallery with real gallery labels. It’s exciting for them. We will get quite a few (school) groups to tour the exhibit,” Abbott said.

Pieces of art began arriving by mail more than two weeks before the show from more than 20 schools in Muncie, Yorktown, Anderson, New Castle, Hagerstown, Hartford City, Fort Recovery, Elwood and Jay County.

The theme of this year’s show, “With Heart and Hand,” was created by the Jay School Corporation’s five art teachers who were inspired by 10 plastic chairs that look like a hand the corporation received from the Jay County Solid Waste District Re-use Center.

“We just started brainstorming,” said Leslie Newton, art teacher at Pennville and Redkey Elementary and West Jay Middle schools. “At my schools, it is a real honor to sit in the (hand) chair.”

The chairs are made from recycled plastic milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles and were acquired from the re-use center in early 2004.

Each school submitting its chair project to the show must come up with a title related to their oversized plastic hand like “Caught Red Handed” or “Talk to the Hand,” Newton said.

An artist open house will be held on Tuesday, March 29, from 3 to 6 p.m. at Arts Place.

“During the reception, area art teachers get ideas from other art teachers. (The show) inspires their creativity, as well,” said Abbott.

The March 29 open house also will take place in conjunction with a presentation called “Rainforest” by the McLean Mix. This multi-sensory experience is based on sounds and sights, collected by Barton and Priscilla McCLean of New York, from the rainforests of the Amazon, Puerto Rico, the Everglades, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Borneo.

Arts Place is located at 131 E. Walnut St. in Portland and is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Admission to the student art show, which runs through Saturday, April 30, is free.[[In-content Ad]]