GREAT FALLS — March is Youth Art Month, and the Great Falls Public Schools are celebrating by showing off student artworks at the Great Falls Public Library. Nearly 200 artworks by students ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade are hanging throughout the library to show off the incredible talent found right here in town.
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On Friday, the Great Falls Public Library hosted an opening reception for Youth Art Month with Commissioner Joe McKenney reading the city council’s official proclamation. It is difficult to overstate the importance of art on young minds. It helps people discover themselves and look inward for inspiration, while also teaching them to look at the world in a different way.
“Art goes beyond words and can express so many more deep things,” Dusty Molyneaux, the music and art supervisor for the Great Falls Public Schools said, “And so for kids to be able to do that, I think it's a real healthy thing for them to be able to do. And it's also a fun and engaging thing for them to be able to do, and it fires up their whole brain when they're using the arts.”
At the reception, I spoke with two young artists from Great Falls High, Siya and Alison. Both students are in ninth grade, and have been creating art since elementary school. Siya’s piece was a purple mushroom, which she chose to paint instead of a flower to be more original. She said she is excited but also nervous about having her art out in public like this.
“In one way, people really enjoy your art and probably get inspired by it and like it,” Siya said, “But in another way it’s kind of like, ‘Ooh, what if they don’t like your art and think it’s meh,’ you know?”
Alison’s piece was a blue moth, and she was limited by only using shades of blue and black, a difficult restriction she felt was a great learning experience.
“I learned I think a little more about shading… throughout the whole painting,” Alison said, “…I think it was honestly really fun, so I think I will probably be doing it again.”
Showing off the arts in a public place like this can help inspire others, and having arts in the school curriculum is an important part of fostering young, creative minds.
“If you don't have the arts as part and interweaved in your regular core curriculum, that curriculum gets really bland and it gets really sterile,” Molyneaux said, “And it's the thing that keeps things creative.”
Siya hopes her art can inspire others to expand their horizons regardless of the medium, and Alison urges aspiring artists to keep trying, even if the result is not perfect.
“If they want to do art then just keep going,” Alison said, “Even if it doesn’t always, like, look good to them, they can keep trying.”
The art will be displayed at the Great Falls Public Library through April, so you can stop by and see the beautiful pieces created by young local artists.
