Talented artists? Check. Breathtaking displays? Check. On campus location? Check. The Edwardsville Arts Center provides all of these luxuries, and we students here are fortunate to have the center at our disposal.
Because Edwardsville is so fortunate, students and the public alike are welcome to visit the arts center during any of its open hours. Art ranging from pottery to paintings is found on display, and the arts center deliberately features a variety of pieces and artists. National artists have a chance to leave their marks as do students of District 7.
“I would love to [visit again]. It’s an incredible place where I’m really able to take a step back and appreciate the talent and thoughtfulness of others through their art,” senior Ryan Serfas said.
The EAC has catered to so many interests so far that even EHS teachers are taking advantage of the facility by incorporating it into their lessons. Heather Haskins’ Honors American Literature class took a trip to the arts center last Friday to appreciate the photography series “Refinery Project: Images of Beauty and Industry” by Tom Atwood. Ms. Haskins allowed the students to enjoy themselves while learning something from it.
“We went down to do three marathon writes, where we find a piece of art that speaks to us and then tell the story of that piece of art as it comes to us. We had one that was 10 minutes and two that were 15 minutes [each],” Serfas said. “It was very neat to listen to my peers’ interpretations.”
Although some students may have viewed the same piece, their interpretations of the piece were unique to one another.
“Ryan [Serfas] and I happened to write about the same picture of that man sitting with his eyes closed as the golden ‘ribbon breeze’ surrounded him. My interpretation was different,” junior Eden Vitoff said. “I wrote about a man who hears beautiful music of his own composition in his head. Sometimes, when he was especially quiet and at peace in nature, the music in his head would take on a physical form and dance around him.”
The increasing awareness of the arts center has sparked interest in teachers outside the EHS art department, and the more teachers incorporate artwork into their curriculum, the more popular and successful the EAC will become in the future.
“…All of the art in the arts center is just phenomenal,” Serfas said. “It blows my mind what students and people of this community are capable of.”
