Old Hotel Art Gallery hosting student art show
The works of McFarland Middle School students fill a wall in the middle school and high school student art show at the Old Hotel Art Gallery in Othello.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald
Streetscapes are among the artworks featured in the annual middle school and high school art show at the Old Hotel Art Gallery in Othello.
Portraits are among the artworks on display at the annual middle school and high school student show at the Old Hotel Art Gallery in Othello.
OTHELLO — The annual Othello secondary schools art show will be on display through the end of the month at the Old Hotel Art Gallery on East Larch Street in Othello.
Gallery director Jenn Stevenson said the show features works from artists at McFarland Middle School, Desert Oasis High School and Othello High School. Stevenson said the show is a tradition each May and it’s been around long enough it predates her six years as gallery director.
“It’s always different,” she said. “Sometimes it’s a huge surprise, the things we get.”
The show features drawings and paintings, ranging from representational to abstract art, landscapes, portraits, cartoon characters, fantasy, street scenes. Middle school students did a project that started with the outline of their own hand, and each artist took it from there. Every art teacher takes a different approach, Stevenson said.
The show takes up the lobby and the first floor landing. Stevenson grouped some artworks by school and chose some of the most innovative works for a separate layout.
“Quite a multitude of (artworks),” Stevenson said.
No prizes are awarded. The show usually includes an open house, but that was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak
Many of the students have brought their families, she said, and it’s been interesting to talk to them about their art. That’s part of the reason for the school art show, she said, to make art available to Othello residents and encourage interest in art throughout the community.
The annual show at the Old Hotel traditionally focuses on the high schools and middle school. Each of the district’s four elementary schools now has an art teacher, something they lacked in the past. As a result, the Old Hotel’s board of directors is discussing sponsoring art shows at each elementary school.
The plan was to start working on art shows at each elementary school during the 2020-21 school year, Stevenson said. But the coronavirus pandemic derailed that. So the planning for the elementary art shows was postponed to the fall at the earliest, she said.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.
