TOWN OF DEWITT – The Community Library of DeWitt & Jamesville displayed artwork made by local homeschooled students this month as part of a week-long showcase.
The library at 5110 Jamesville Road put out a call for artistic submissions at the beginning of April and closed off registration on May 1, allowing the staff time to find spots for all the pieces and gather enough refreshments for a kickoff reception. There were no set parameters for what could be submitted as far as size, style or medium, and everything up for show was put in either the children’s room, the downstairs reading room or the upstairs browsing room.
“It was so much fun to see everything that came in,” said Meghan Wilson, a paralibrarian for children’s services at the library. “Initially we had planned to just put it all up in our community room downstairs, but then we had such a huge response we decided it would be better to spread it out so that when we had the reception not everybody was cramped in one room.”
The May 8 reception invited the homeschooled students ranging in age from three to 13 and their families to take a look at the exhibit before any other patrons.
“There was a lot of excitement,” Wilson said. “A lot of the kids were super pumped to see their own art display, and the families were really moved by it too.”
Wilson, herself a homeschooler of a 13-year-old and a 10-year-old, said she’s happy to see such opportunities for students following that educational path. She said kids taught that way experience flexibility that students in public school might not be afforded but that they often miss certain milestones like prom, choir concerts, and art nights that show off their creativity.
“This is especially close to my heart because we’re able to provide these kids with something that they wouldn’t have had a chance to have without this space, so that’s exciting,” Wilson said.
Among the 29 works of art showcased from May 8 through May 15, there was a coffee maker fashioned out of air-dry clay and cardboard, a treehouse sketch colored in with markers, an acrylic painting of rainbow hills, a watercolor piece showing an “aquatic menagerie,” a family hotel sculpture made out of wood, and several pieces assembled with paper shapes.
Wilson, whose oldest son drew a mushroom man surrounded by UFOs and lightning bolts, said she appreciated how the kids who participated let their imaginations run free.
“It’s so much fun to be able to build these kinds of events and programs for the community at large and bring everybody together,” she said. “I think it’s really special to have artwork not just in our gallery space but all through the library that reflects the people that we serve.”
Beyond this first-time homeschool art showcase, Wilson said she hopes for the Community Library of DeWitt & Jamesville to host the event at least once a year. Upon receiving comments expressing that the artwork brightened up the library, she said there will be thought given to leaving the pieces up longer next time.