New Madrid Central teacher to receive state art award

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Linda Melkersman is always escorting her students at New Madrid Central High School on one arts trip or another, this year to see the Van Gogh exhibition in St. Louis. More recently in Memphis, Tenn., instead of going to Graceland they visited the Memphis Art College Brooks Art Museum.

In February, Melkersman will travel to Jefferson City, Mo., to be honored for her work in arts education in Southeast Missouri.

She and four other recipients of the 2002 Missouri Arts Awards will be presented with the awards at the Capitol Rotunda Feb. 13 and afterward will be feted at the Governor's Mansion.

Melkersman has been teaching in New Madrid County schools for 15 years. This is her third year at New Madrid County Central High School.

Her latest project was a movable mural cooperatively painted by junior high and high school art students from New Madrid and Sikeston. The free-standing mural depicting the region's agricultural heritage goes on display at Sikeston High School next week and in February will be exhibited at the Margaret Harwell Art Museum in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Area crops subject

The mural consists of eight panels 18 inches wide and 7 feet high, providing on one side a panoramic view of common Southeast Missouri crops and on the other side close-up views of the crops. Cotton, milo and sunflowers get artistic treatment.

The project was commissioned by Sikeston Missouri Arts for this year's Cotton Festival of the Arts.

Melkersman's students are scheduled to paint two more murals next summer.

She was naturally drawn to arts education, she says, adding: "I have always loved art and kids. They always go together. When they're being creative, they really come out of themselves."

Creating art is particularly beneficial for students who are learning disabled or labeled educable mentally handicapped, she said.

Janey Jones, librarian at New Madrid County Central, had the idea of nominating Melkersman.

"She makes available to a lot of our students who live in a disadvantaged area advantages they'd never have," she says.

"She loves art. And her love of art is contagious with the students," Jones said.

Terri Matthews, who wrote one of the nomination letters as administrator of Sikeston Missouri Arts, said people in larger cities usually win Missouri Arts Awards. "For her to win the award maybe will bring attention to the arts in the Bootheel."

Matthews said Melkersman's interest in her students and in them experiencing the process of creating art make her worthy of the honor.

Melkersman had her students paint at this year's Cotton Festival so people could see art being created.

"You can admire a piece of art," Matthews said, "but to see how it's done makes you appreciate it even more."

Melkersman will receive the award in the arts education category. Beatrice Grimes of St. Joseph, Mo., will get the philanthropy award, and the Kansas City Ballet will be recognized as an arts organization. St. Louisan Bill Kohn will receive the award for an individual artist, and Gordon McCann of Springfield, Mo., will get the award for leadership in the arts.

The awards are presented by the Missouri Citizens for the Arts, a nonprofit arts advocacy organization.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182