By Riley McCoy
For The Register-Herald
Beckley — On March 18, parents and teachers packed the Beckley Art Center as Raleigh County students decorated wall spaces with award-winning art.
The Raleigh County reception took place after the Beckley Art Center hosted the statewide Youth Art Month reception. The local event, postponed after Tuesday’s inclement weather, served as Raleigh County’s public awards ceremony and gallery exhibition within the monthlong student art program.
Schools represented included Woodrow Wilson High School, Shady Spring High School, Liberty High School, Trap Hill Middle School, Park Middle School, Beckley-Stratton Middle School, Independence Middle School, Shady Spring Elementary School, Daniels Elementary School, Ghent Elementary School, St. Francis and homeschool students.
For Park Middle School sixth-grader Mila Roop, the award connected both early encouragement and classroom guidance. Roop said she first took to art while drawing with her grandmother and said her current teacher, Holly Bess Kincaid, helped shape that interest in class.
“When my grandma would always draw, I would always draw with her,” Roop said.
Roop then turned to the first-place fox piece itself, saying she chose the subject because she liked animals and “it was just pretty.” She described the methodology behind the piece, stating, “I’d have a picture behind it, and we would trace it, and then go in and blend all the colors together.”
Kincaid said Roop’s piece was inspired by a fox image but developed into her own work with “her own background too,” and added that Roop had only just seen the blue-ribbon result.
“She just walked in a few minutes ago and saw the blue ribbon,” Kincaid said. “So it’s a rush right now.”
Kincaid added that Roop “needs to join our advanced art classes and keep going” because “she’s a very talented artist.”
Liberty High School art teacher Tonja Raines said the reception gave students a rare chance to step outside the classroom and into public view.
“I think it’s wonderful that the kids get the opportunity to have a gallery experience and display their work and just everybody can see it,” Raines said.
She said the moment carried extra weight because art students do not always receive the same visibility as other groups.
“It’s exciting for them, because the arts, you know, sometimes are left out,” Raines said. “It’s amazing. It’s like they’re recognized for their art, and this is a chance for them to shine.”
Artwork wrapped around the room in sections, with elementary work set off near one corner and middle school pieces stretched along another wall as families moved through the Beckley Art Center.
“It was good to see so many people and parents support the art in the community,” Holly Pittman, a teacher at Beckley-Stratton Middle School, said. “It was a big turnout, and it was crowded.”
According to Pittman, Beckley-Stratton brought 25 or more pieces. She said art mattered because it gave students “project-based learning” and showed them “that they could think it and create it.”
That public setting carried a different weight for Susan Ellis of Daniels Elementary, who said six of her students had work on display out of roughly 500 she teaches from pre-K through fifth grade.
“When they’re young like that, they already have that creativity in them,” Ellis said. “If they’re not getting that when they’re young, then they’re starting to lose it.” She explained further that art also built “fine motor” ability and “visual spatial reasoning” while giving students a class they genuinely looked forward to.
“They need to be showcased for their talent and their ability and their dedication to it,” Ellis said. “We just need more art, not less of it.”
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