{"id":5788,"date":"2011-11-15T15:04:04","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T20:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=5788"},"modified":"2011-11-15T15:04:04","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T20:04:04","slug":"unionville-art-gala-showcases-local-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=5788","title":{"rendered":"Unionville Art Gala showcases local talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 36th<\/sup> annual Unionville Art Gala transformed the Unionville High cafeteria into a thriving art exhibition, displaying the work of over 175 artists<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By P.J. D\u2019Annunzio<\/strong>, Staff Writer, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The 36th annual Unionville Art Gala showcased the best of local professional and student artists, all while raising money for the school.<\/p><\/div>\n

EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The Chester County art scene extends beyond the pastoral works of the old masters, and the Unionville Art Gala\u2014in its 36th year of operation\u2014exemplified this, showcasing established as well as emerging artistic talent in the area last Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have roughly 90 professional artists, 85 student artists showing off their curricular art,\u201d Director Lele Galer said. \u201cWe\u2019re here showing some Chester County original art. We also have some new emerging artists from the area; it isn\u2019t just natural landscapes anymore…it\u2019s nice to mix it up, because there\u2019s just so much here that\u2019s different in this area\u201d<\/p>\n

The gala incorporated two distinct areas of exhibition: the professional and the student.<\/p>\n

The student exhibit, adorned with white Christmas lights and mellowed with acoustic background performances lent a decidedly Bohemian feel to overall ambiance. Strategically positioned lights were also in place to give focus to the avant-garde, multicolored self-portraits as well as the more traditional landscape pieces.<\/p>\n

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Sculptures were among the works featured at the show.<\/p><\/div>\n

The event served students not only in terms of recognition for their artwork, but also to raise funds for extracurricular organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year we do something a little bit different,\u201d Galer said, \u201cLast year we added the silent auction and it\u2019s currently doubled in size. This year instead of haranguing local restaurants for donations, the students are running tables are selling food to raise money for their clubs. That\u2019s really preferable to car washes as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the professional side of the exhibit, a plethora of works were present showcasing the abstract to the traditional; from jewelry to metal sculpture. The gala\u2019s featured artist this year was Jeremy McGirl, an oil painter who combines\u00a0realistically incorporated images onto a superbly painted canvas environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing it [art] since I\u2019ve been growing up,\u201d McGirl said. \u201cI got a Bachelor\u2019s in Fine Arts in \u201996. My wife and I moved out here from Colorado in \u201999 and then I went back for my Master\u2019s in 2005\u2026I was working at DuPont at that time and was kind of getting tired of the desk job, but I always kept up the drawing: it\u2019s one of those things that felt more like a hobby. I said \u2018this is how I spend my time, this is what I want to do,\u2019 so I went back to school and finished up my degree in 2008.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Images on the display in the student art area during the Unionville Art Gala.<\/p><\/div>\n

As with all artists, there is an intrinsic passion, a raison de vivre for his craft. For McGirl, the inspiration is the landscape and a connotation in his work that denotes desire to keep naturally pristine scenery unchanged:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we go back to Colorado we see how the environment has changed and grown, and it makes you sad on some fronts,\u201d he said \u201cSometimes you say \u2018oh that\u2019s great there\u2019s a beautiful new thing,\u2019 but then you remember what used to be there, the great open spaces that are starting to fade away.”<\/p>\n

But beyond the tangible art itself, beyond the monetary value placed on the works and revenue from fundraising, there is a more intangible benefit for the art students of Unionville High: the chance to create.<\/p>\n

In a time when art, music, and even academic programs such as history are being cut, now more than ever, the chance for self-expression has become increasingly more vital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows the duality of how everyone\u2019s brain works,\u201d Unionville High art teacher Lewis Stamos said. \u201cIt is very important to have the academics, but you also need other outlets for things to be expressed and to be taught. There are very logical things that need to be brought into the left brain but there are also other needs to be met to develop, not just academic automatons, but people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 36th annual Unionville Art Gala transformed the Unionville High cafeteria into a thriving art exhibition, displaying the work of over 175 artists By P.J. D\u2019Annunzio, Staff Writer, UnionvilleTimes.com EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The Chester County art scene extends beyond the pastoral works of the old masters, and the Unionville Art Gala\u2014in its 36th year of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[287,7],"tags":[365,633,24],"class_list":["post-5788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-featured","tag-art","tag-students","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}