The Orange County Art Educator’s Association announces its 25th Anniversary art show featuring the varied work of art teaching professionals from all public school levels. Entitled From Dirt To Digital, this year’s show features the work of around 70 art teachers working in media from photography to paint to ceramics. Orange County’s teaching artists are exploring where their own work falls in the continuum of art, from artistry’s first origins to present-day work assisted by technology.
From Dirt To Digital has a poignant and emphatic meaning in a year when many schools are facing the potential loss of visual arts programs due to projected extreme budget cuts. Art is a means of connecting our students to history in a visceral way. It provides the public school student with a means of satisfying an inborn need to create objects, express a personal vision, banish helplessness, and think proactively. The ability to improvise and find new paths while engaging the emotions and the spirit is truly the way forward into a balanced future for our young artists. Drawing on the fertile, inexhaustible soil of the visual arts should be the right of every student.
While teachers enjoy sharing our personal evolution as artists, we also hope to bring attention to the critical situation facing the arts in Orange County and across the nation.
Located in the Kiene-Quigley Community Gallery at CityARTS Factory at the intersection of Orange Avenue and Pine Streets, From Dirt To Digital will hang from April 21st to May 9th.
The opening reception on April 21 from 6:00 – 9:00 pm will feature music performances by OCPS music students. The gallery is open from Monday through Saturday, 11:00am – 7:00 pm. Admission is free.
For questions regarding From Dirt To Digital, contact Kris Finn, Art Educator’s Show Chair, at: [email protected].
