Montgomery Academy and Montgomery Upper Middle School (MUMS) will have its art teachers and students participating in one of two exhibits organized by The Center for Contemporary Art in March.
The exhibits are for Youth Art Month. Montgomery Academy’s John Kean and De’Borah Mozell are the art teachers participating. For MUMS, Whitney Ehnert is the art teacher who is also participating. Somerset County has 18 teachers and their students from 14 schools are taking part in the exhibits.
Ehnert has been a participating in this event for six years and her students will have their artwork displayed from March 25-31 at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster.
“I chose to bring nine student pieces to the exhibit from my students in grades 7-8,” she said. “For each art teacher participating you get to nominate two students whose artwork gets possibly selected for the state Youth Art Month exhibit in Trenton at the Statehouse. My student Eliana Vair had her piece chosen to be exhibited in Trenton.”
Eliana is in seventh grade her art piece used collage technique, paint, charcoal, and pastel for several guide scenes. Her piece has a night sky with northern lights, there are mountains, a tropical beach and in the center she painted a silhouetted figure standing in front of a starry night sky with galaxy colors.
“Eliana is an extremely gifted student who bursts with ideas at all times. She turned her piece into something profound for her,” she said.
Ehnert said the best part of being a part of an event like this is allowing students to see their artwork in the real world.
“For them to see their artwork celebrated with their families is great,” she said. “The Center for Contemporary Art has put on a beautiful exhibit every single year. It is just priceless to witness the students see their artwork displayed on the wall.”
Montgomery Academy is a special education school whose art teachers, Keane and Mozell, spearhead the student’s participation in the exhibit event.
Keane has been an art teacher since 2007. He is bringing nine student pieces to be shown at the exhibit on March 25-31 in Bedminster.
“For this particular event we have been doing for 10 years now. I felt this looked like a good opportunity for students when we first started,” Keane said.
Sophomore Pierce Contursi was nominated by Keane to have his piece selected for display in Trenton. Contursi’s artwork was selected to be displayed in the statehouse.
“His piece is a tribute to ‘The Wave’ a woodblock print (method of printing images) from Japanese artist Hokusai,” Keane said. “We do themes around artists. This particular one was a De’Borah (Mozell) idea. His piece was acrylic on cardboard and it was a tribute to that artist. We are excited he is a part of the state exhibit.”
He said it took Pierce a couple of hours to create the artwork.
Keane said he is enjoys seeing the students faces when their artwork is displayed.
“We only have about hundred students in the school and they are special needs students. It is so gratifying to see them happy with their families with their artwork being displayed,” he said.
For more information about the exhibits, you can call The Center for Contemporary Art at 908-234-2345 or visit their website at http://ccabedminster.org.