The following article is part of the Art Forward series from the Rahr-West Art Museum.
The Rahr-West Art Museum in Manitowoc, WI continues its annual Youth Art Series, hosting artwork from high schools of the Eastern Wisconsin Conference. Student artwork will feature in the museum’s Ruth West Gallery from April 23 — May 8, 2022. The Eastern Wisconsin High School Art exhibit includes artwork by high school students from Brillion, Campbellsport, Chilton, Kewaskum, Kiel, New Holstein, Plymouth, Manitowoc-Roncalli, Sheboygan Falls, Two Rivers, Valders and Waupun.
The exhibition showcases outstanding art while sharing the value of arts education with the public. Joshua Lappnow, an art teacher in Sheboygan Falls is coordinating this year’s exhibit. Lappnow has been teaching sixteen years. He notes: “…over this time, I have come to see art as an increasingly important outlet for students in an ever increasingly digital world. Students often want to go beyond screens inundating them with information and experience the significance of being a ‘maker.’ For myself, my work has increasingly grown in depicting space. I enjoy the outdoors and by spending more time on a computer, I desire to depict the opposite in the form of landscapes and big sky.”
Lappnow recognizes the last few years have taken a toll on students and he is most proud of their resilience and desire to get back to work. He says, “students love works that enable personal meanings and truths. Once they are given the artistic tools and understandings to create, the best challenges I can give often require me to simply ‘get out of their way!’ I am here to help, guide, hold accountable, and have great discussions, but sometimes the very best thing I can do is to just not step on their feet.”
Lappnow sees laughter as crucial to a healthy studio. He tries to engender a fun environment for students to open vistas of creativity. Aside from that, he sees art as being critical to the high school curriculum as “students are inundated with input without enough opportunity for output. Art is an opportunity to balance input and output in a developing mind. It also has significantly more career benefits and impacts than what the general public is aware of.”
Lappnow’s student Aubrie Gaboda has work featured in the exhibit this year. Gaboda reports taking part in art so she can create and do things with her hands. She notes: “I enjoy most mediums; clay, paints, and photography. I enjoy working with oil paints and clay the most. Oil paints blend nicely and clay is fun to throw with.” The works in the exhibit represent her likes and interests. She says, “I enjoy animals and their anatomy so two of my pieces incorporate that while my tea set is inspired by Japanese tea pot sets.” She is going to work on a mural at the high school as her next project.
The Eastern Wisconsin Conference High School Art Exhibit will be open April 23 through May 8, 2022. The Rahr-West Art Museum is open Tuesdays-Fridays from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm, and weekends from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm. Find more information on exhibits and programs at www.rahrwestartmuseum.org
