Students Display Art in the Library

— Serenity Clegg-LaPorte, Reporter

Mandan High School is in the process of communicating with Morton Mandan Public Library about displaying student artwork. Along with collaborative pieces and other kids’ art, participants are excited.

The process is still in its beginning stages of figuring out the logical aspects of sending artwork. This is partly due to competing venues that are available to Mandan students.

“As much as I wanna work with the library, there’s more that are time sensitive and probably would benefit the student a little bit more than just [getting them all] for display,” Mr. G said.

Some of these venues include the Bismarck Art Gallery Association (BAGA) which is towards the end of April, and Cappuccino on Collins (COC) who has spots open for Mandan students for the upcoming months. Both of these places called and/or emailed Mr. G recently as of January 27th.

“We got lots of local venues after student artwork and [we are] really trying to get it out there,” Mr. G said. “Some of the national ones can get some really, really wild scholarships and really good prizes: purses, money — in that way.”

The library hasn’t gotten any new artworks from MHS since September; the art that’s already there is from other schools, programs, and towns. Some of these donors are: Flasher, Sweet Briar, Fort Lincoln Elementary, Head Start, New Salem, and Glendalin.

“We’re also a county library,” Shawna Marion, the Community Engagement Coordinator, said. “That means we’d be willing to accept artwork from our small towns that we do outreach in. The nice thing is that we can collect artwork from a large variety.”

The first time the art was displayed was the Grand Opening of the renovated library. There was a variety of previously finished art set up in the community room, where around 150-200 people had come for the ribbon cutting.

“Their artwork was very proudly displayed,” Marion said.

Some students who are willing to showcase their artwork have had trouble with the time to create art, nonetheless put it in the library. Knowledge is also a factor in artists’ trouble.

“I feel like making art in general you have to have the time to do it,” Lamya Evans, Senior, said. “Especially now at this point, for me, it’s harder to do that because of how busy I’ve been. I definitely need the time to do it and the knowledge of how to display it.”

Evans had her art displayed in the High School. While the art hasn’t been sent to the library for display, she thinks displaying art can be good for artists.

“I thought it was a cool way to put yourself out there to show others what you can do,” Evans said.

One of the things Marion is excited about is the collaborative aspect. In the spring, library staff are planning to create a mosaic based on a design by Molly McLain, based on information from patrons about what they value about Morton County and Mandan; after that visitors will add glass to the design, and once it’s finished it will be installed on the walls.

“That’ll be a perfect example of what that could look like: all ages participating,” Marion said. “It’ll be displayed as long as it exists and that should be for many, many years. It’s nice for people to say ‘I took part in that.’”

Mr. G thinks it could be a learning experience for students, and help them feel more confident about their work. He had been showing work for 20 years now, but even though people get a little more confident as time goes on, there is still room for self doubt.

“You always have those inadequacies going through your brain, but this is a really good time to really develop a positive rapport with the venue,” Mr. G said. “But it’s also, on my end, being able to build students up a little bit more — Your work isn’t as bad as you think it is.”