ArtsCenter showcases ArtSchool students' works

Triangle residents are tapping into their inner artist with the help of the Carrboro ArtsCenter’s ArtSchool. And this month, the artists’ work will be on display for all to enjoy.

Throughout the month of March, the ArtsCenter is showcasing its annual Student Exhibit, which jump-started on March 3. Set in the Nicholson Gallery, the exhibit features pieces from former and current students of the ArtSchool, the ArtsCenter’s oldest program.

Featured work will span various mediums — from ceramics to mixed media.

Heather Gerni, gallery coordinator for the ArtsCenter, said it typically takes two days to arrange and hang submissions from ArtSchool students. But she said the setup process is one of the most exciting stages of the annual showcase, as the majority of submissions are not seen beforehand.

“People submit them during the day when we’re in the office,” Gerni said. “So, the day we decide to get them all out of storage and start putting them in the gallery to hang, it’s kind of a surprise. It’s kind of like Christmas.”

Phaedra Kelly, the ArtSchool director, said the exhibit is intended to highlight the variety of courses within the ArtSchool as well as the quality of student work.

“We offer hundreds of art classes a year for adult education — in fine arts and performing arts,” Kelly said. “This show is a celebration, of course, of the fine arts component of that.”

Kelly also said the ArtSchool endeavors to connect people to themselves again through art.

Nancy Smith, a Carrboro resident, is one of those people.

Smith began taking classes at the ArtSchool four years ago in an effort to reconnect with a childhood passion.

“When I was 6 years old, I decided I was going to grow up and be an artist and that didn’t happen,” Smith said.

“I dabbled in art off and on all my life and I told myself, ‘Well, when you retire, you can really pursue it.’ Then I turned 50 and said, ‘Now why am I going to wait until I retire? I’m going to go ahead and start now.’ So that’s when I started taking lessons again,” she said.

Smith’s latest work, “Flamingo Fling,” was selected to appear in the gallery as well as on the cover of the ArtSchool’s summer catalogue.

The mixed media piece was inspired by a trip she took to Sylvan Heights Bird Park, the largest conservatory for waterfowl, in Scotland Neck.

Smith said that she draws inspiration from various sources, including her teacher, her classmates, her love of animals and trips she has taken. She also said that she finds art to be an almost spiritual experience.

“I just feel like it’s my whole life really. I tell people before, it’s like when I’m painting, there’s no time,” she said. “It’s very meditative in that way.”

Kelly said the exhibit is a reflection of the creative incubation the ArtSchool strives to provide.

“Everybody has some creativity in them, and that’s what the ArtSchool is about: fostering that creativity that we so often shut down once we aren’t kids anymore — once we grow up,” she said.

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