High school students at heart of new Carson City display

Sixteen art students from Carson, Dayton and Douglas high schools are showing their work in a new art exhibit going up at the Community Development Building, 108 E. Proctor St.

The Capital City Arts Initiative is hosting a reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, for artists featured in “High School Pic(ks) 1.” The exhibition and reception are free and the public is invited.

The display includes a wide variety of two-dimensional art: painting, drawing, photography, and mixed media pieces that show the depth and breadth of the students’ creativity.

The participating Carson High School student artists include Charley Andrews, Maeve Hoerth, Katy Liemandt, and Jessica Mathiesen. The Douglas High students are Abbie Baxter, Shelby Casaus, Vincent Gonzales, Liam Holman, Tabitha Keating, Leedi Martinez, Jasa Villaneuva, and Jessica Withrow. Dayton High is represented by artists Hannah Gottschalk, Schyler Manley, Kamryn Stevenson, and Oakley Workman.

These young artists are students of Mike Malley at Carson High School, Malaynia Wick at Dayton High School, and Rita Borselli and Kimberly Brennan at Douglas High School.

This show is the second in CCAI’s 2016-2017 series of student exhibitions at the Community Development Building. The following group exhibitions will present art by students from Sierra Nevada College in December, Western Nevada College in February; and from Carson, Dayton, and Douglas high schools again in the spring.

The Community Development Building is open from 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays. The show will remain in the building’s lobby exhibition space through Nov. 29.

Also on Tuesday, the Capital City Arts Initiative will present a talk by Tom di Maria, director of the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, Calif. His illustrated talk, “Outside In,” is next in CCAI’s Nevada Neighbors series.

The talk will take place at 7 p.m. at the Community Development Building. There will be an informal reception for di Maria preceding the event at 6:15 p.m. The presentation and reception are free.

The oldest and largest art center of its kind, the Creative Growth Art Center engages 154 adult artists with disabilities in 74 workshops led by trained professional artists in a range of media. Founded in 1974, its ground-breaking model has fostered the development of more than 20 similar organizations around the world.

Di Maria’s Nevada Neighbors presentation focus on artists with disabilities from CGAC including the work of artist Judith Scott, a sculptor whose work has been widely exhibited in venues ranging from the Outsider Art Fair to the Brooklyn Museum.

As part of his CCAI visit, di Maria will give his talk to art students and faculty at Douglas High School and at Sierra Nevada College.

The Capital City Arts Initiative supports artists and the arts and culture of Carson City and the surrounding region. It’s committed to community building for the area’s diverse adult and youth populations through art projects and exhibitions, live events, arts education programs, artist residencies, and its online projects. For more information, go to www.arts-initiative.org.