Montpelier students exhibit art and pop-up gallery

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Students in Montpelier will have their artwork shown off for the whole city to see this month, and it’s about more than just bragging rights.

The shuttered Montpelier fitness studio on Main Street may not be teeming with customers anymore, but its window display is drawing a lot of attention and a reason to pause.

“There’s a range of media shown here and the quality of the work is really impressive. It’s great for… I’ve seen parents coming here with their kids and looking for their artwork,” said Dan Groberg with Montpelier Alive.

The display is made up of 200 plus images by students in all grades at Montpelier schools. It’s one of a handful of virtual displays put on by Montpelier Alive in the past few months as a part of their Community Projection project.

“We decided that a great way to activate vacant space and make it more exciting and attractive to people in downtown Montpelier would be to show some artwork here,” Groberg said.

Among the images is the art of students at Montpelier’s Union Elementary, including 4th graders Eilidh Corbett and Winnie Liu. “We both did prints of foxes carved out of rubber,” Corbett explained.

They say they were inspired by each other and their shared love of nature and are happy to have eyes on their hard work. “It’s exciting knowing that people can see our artwork, and we worked really hard on it,” Liu said. “Not a lot of people have seen my art, so it’s something I’m looking forward to people seeing.”

The display has art from the middle and high schools as well, but nearly 160 kids in the 3rd and 4th grade are featured in the window this month.

Art teacher Kristina Kane says that’s a meaningful experience for these young artists. “Art is a really powerful way to bring people together in positive ways, and for children to feel that they have a voice and that it’s heard is a really powerful experience for them,” she said.

All 200 images will be on a rotating display at 50 Main Street from 9 to 6 every day.

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