Marblehead Youth Art Committee Launches With First Student Gallery

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The Marblehead Arts Association has launched its Youth Art Committee with a collaborative gallery named "Figuratively Speaking" from student co-chairs Lucy Bland and Shawn Stolarz.

"Co-chairing a committee like this is the ultimate group project," MAA Operations Manager Xhazzie Kindle said. "But we have so much confidence in Lucy and Shawn, they are going to
be great leaders."

Bland is a Marblehead High School sophomore who has also been a student at Acorn Gallery School of Art. She works with oil paints, charcoal and oil pastel, as well as watercolor, gouache, ink, acrylic and print-making.

Bland said she is "very excited" to co-lead the youth committee in Marblehead and "cannot wait to see what amazing artwork comes out of it."

Stolarz is a Fenwick sophomore who also took classes at ThinkArt and now studies at Acorn Art.

He is an award-winning artist who uses his art to communicate environmental concerns pertaining to climate change, deforestation and animal endangerment.

"Our vision for the Youth Art Committee is really to let the kids take ownership of our Cushman Gallery For Young Artists and let them learn about the business of art," Kindle said. "We can give them the space, the resources and we can support the (youth) committee as much as they need, but we don't intend to micromanage the process.

"They won't learn if the adults do all the work for them."

The "Figuratively Speaking" gallery focuses on the human form. The 10 works in a variety of oil and pastels will be in the Cushman Gallery until Feb. 28.

"Putting on an exhibit means a lot of moving parts," Kindle said. "At any given moment, there are multiple balls in the air. First, the kids need to put out a general call for art or ask for specific proposals. Next, they need to decide what to accept and what to defer. They also need to decide how many shows they can handle in the year.

"The MAA rotates our exhibits about every six weeks but the kids don't have to follow our lead, it really is up to them. Then once the art is here, it needs to be hung, lit and publicized.

"People won't come to see it if they don't know it's here."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)