Local students exhibit art at Peters Valley
LAYTON — Peters Valley School of Craft celebrates an upcoming annual exhibition in the Sally D. Francisco Gallery which highlights work by students in grade nine through 12 by invitation only to some of the local high schools in the area.
The 2015 Student Exhibition will be Jan. 25 through Feb. 15, with an Opening Reception on Sunday, Jan. 25 from 3 to 5 p.m. In addition, Peters Valley will award one full-tuition Huber-Weyer Scholarship to the “Best in Show”.
The exhibition will feature two- and three-dimensional artwork in mediums such as ceramics, drawing, painting, jewelry, sculpture, photography, glass and other mixed media. This is the fifth year of this annual event.
According to Peter's Valley, an educational center for the arts, this exhibition is intended “to encourage and inspire these budding young artists and provide them with a professional experience.”
Local students
This year Peters Valley is awarding additional scholarships to high school students at the Teens Arts Festival, Wallkill Valley Art Show, Vernon Township Juried Art Show, and Montville Mudd Ceramics Exhibit. The Sally D. Francisco Gallery will showcase and promote the students’ work in the distinguished gallery setting it is known for.
Participating schools are: Delaware Valley, High Point Regional, Kittatiny Regional, Montville, Mountain Lakes, Newton, Randolph, Sparta, Vernon Township, Wallkill Valley Regional, and Westwood Regional.
Heather Anderson, art teacher at Kittatiny High School said that she and her colleagues, George Soutter and Kristiana Lightcap, who also teach art at the school chose 10 of their most talented students to submit works for the exhibit.
Some of these students include Anna Moch, a junior at Kittatiny High School, who created a vase from magazine strips and Elmer's Glue in the style of 10,000 villages. Holly Nuzzo, a junior specializes in ceramics and handbuilt pottery. According to Anderson, she created a purely sculptural wall hanging of the “octopus variety”, the first of two pieces she created that were “octopus driven.” Olivia Markisch is only a sophomore, but Anderson describes her as extremely talented.
She takes pride and detail in her work and her hand built sculpture of an octopus wrapped around a vase built in the coil method of clay construction is entitled "Submerged," a word Anderson used to describe her student's focus when she is involved in her art.
Amy Fairweather, an art teacher at Wallkill Valley Regional High School on Hardyston said that the 10 pieces submitted by students in her high school are mostly stained glass and fused glass creations, but not in the traditional sense. One piece by Flor Ramero, a junior, is a 3-D lighthouse that is illuminated from within by a light bulb.
Fairweather said the students had done a lot of clay in the past at the school because that is what they had started the year with. This year she began the year with stained glass and fused glass and this is the reason for most of the pieces being of glass this year.
Madi Ryder, a senior, created a three process glass fusion sculpture resembling a woven basket made of woven glass. The glass was first heated into strips which were then woven and then pressed into the shape of a 12” square shape.
The Sally D. Francisco Gallery is located on the second floor of the Gallery, Peters Valley School of Craft, 19 Kuhn Rd. in Layton, N.J. Hours are: Thursday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Peters Valley also offers an outreach program to schools called Craftsmen At Work. This program brings multiple professional artists to a school for a full day of demonstrations. Begun in 1987, more than 40,000 students from all over N.J., N.Y. and Pa. have participated in this program. Peters Valley works with schools to integrate cross curricular information into the program.
For more information call 973-948-5200 or visit www.petersvalley.org.