By Abby Goldenfarb and Aaron Horne

Last month we celebrated Youth Art Month with a new exhibit opening, Celebrating Local Student Artists!, at our Boston East Community Art Gallery to showcase 31 original works from local middle and high school students. The evening was abuzz with excitement as 30 students from Revere High School, Chelsea High School, Excel Academy Middle School (East Boston), Excel Academy High School (East Boston), and Eugene Wright Science and Technology Academy gathered with family and friends to view their incredible pieces. The opening is the first of a two part series with the second opening on April 23rd which will feature students from Winthrop High School and Garfield Middle School (Revere). For each show, students were asked to submit vibrant, dynamic pieces that they felt represented the best of their work.

The exhibit coincided with the National Art Education Association’s (NAEA) annual conference, held this year in Boston. The conference is a gathering of thousands of visual art educators from all over the world dedicated to the education of young artists. We thought there would be no better way to celebrate this tremendous organization gathering in Boston than to offer them a chance to see some of the local talent in our city.

When we opened the gallery in the summer of last year to be part of our larger Boston East building project, we envisioned a space that would continue East Boston’s long standing tradition of nurturing and supporting local artists. For support, we partnered with the Atlantic Works Gallery and June Krinsky-Rudder from the East Boston Artists Group to help us create exhibits that will highlight this area to the general public. Local art is the visual and creative expression of a community by reflecting what makes any given area unique. Encouraging local art, however, means providing the necessary space and support to help future and emerging artists showcase their work. Displaying the works of middle and high school students reflects our commitment to this community. We love the community of East Boston and hope to continue to show the vibrancy of this community through the amazing local talents of its artists.