Jackson art show opens today

Once a year, the beige walls and brown bleachers at Jackson High School's multipurpose building come to life with colorful paintings, intricate weavings and sculpture.

The artwork captures the uninhibited strokes of kindergartners as well as the painstaking detail in older students' self-portraits.

For more than a decade, Art Expressions has brought together more than 3,000 pieces of art from students districtwide.

The free event will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today and from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday. Today's activities will include demonstrations by guest artists, musical performances and hands-on art projects such as sculpture, puppets and jewelry making for children.

"Art is a way for people to express what they think, see and feel in a way that words can't always express," said Carol Horst, event organizer and an art teacher at South Elementary.

Horst's students have about 590 pieces of art in the show. Students from the district's other elementary schools, middle school, junior high and high school also contributed.

Volunteers spent hours setting up the show Friday. The pieces chosen for display were collected by teachers from projects done throughout the school year.

There are masks, baskets and other three-dimensional art as well as examples of photography, printmaking and pencil drawings.

Horst said the collection shows the progress of students as they grow older and mature in their abilities.

"It's really a good assessment for art teachers also," Horst said. "This is a culmination where we can see, K-12, how the artwork grows."

cmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128