Students Create Space for Their Art at the Monroe Center

Public school students from kindergarteners to seniors will present original work at the sixth Annual Art Exhibition at the Monroe Center for the Arts, at 720 Monroe St., on Tuesday, April 24 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“We want the public at large to see what the public school kids are doing,” said Michel Ising, an art teacher at the high school who is organizing the event with her colleague Erin Kubach.

The event is free. Everyone in the community is welcome to attend. There will be photography and sculpture as well as student paintings.

The exhibit started out as the final exam for the International Baccalaureate program at the high school, but with time, it grew to also include work from students in other art classes at the high school as well as the elementary schools.

The students do everything to set up the exhibit. “They do the work, they hang the work,” said Ising. She added that they really learn a lot through the whole process. “Besides a sense of accomplishment and huge sense of pride, I think they get a feeling of what they can do in the art world.”

Ising said that since the exhibit is created among working artists’ studios, the students also get a chance to mingle with professionals. “This gives them an idea of how you could really make a living at it,” said Ising.

Some of her most gifted students, she said, have been accepted to art schools like Parsons and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan. “We’ve been very lucky with some of our gifted students,” she said.