WILKES-BARRE — If life imitates art, King’s College is the perfect place to feel young again.
A collection of art by local students in kindergarten through sixth grade will be on display through July 14 in the college’s Widmann Gallery, located between North Franklin and North Main Streets. Among the 50-plus young artists featured in the show, titled “Young Artists Exhibition,” are a number of Greater Pittston young people, including Benecio Carpentier, 10, of Wyoming.
Benecio’s piece is a still life created with graphite pencil. It was the final piece he made this year for his class at Sue Hand’s Imagery, an art studio in Dallas. Benecio participates in the extracurricular classes because he enjoys making art.
“I think it’s fun because you get to express your feelings by art and you get to color and feel a lot of new stuff,” Benecio said.
All works showing at King’s College come from students at Sue Hand’s Imagery. The eponymous owner said she teaches “students in kindergarten to age 90,” but there’s something special about the art created by those on the younger end of the spectrum.
“It’s how they look at things,” Hand said. “There’s one a sixth-grader did of a corgi dog and it’s phenomenal; that dog is just staring at you, it’s just beautiful. It’s just fun to see the world through the eyes of a child, although this work is definitely not child-like. It’s quite exceptional.”
Hand appointed a jury of three high school students to oversee the selection process because she “looks at things differently than kids do” and wanted “more of a youthful look to the show.”
Widmann Gallery Coordinator Michelle Leonard said she may make the youth-centric show an annual event because she feels it’s important to expose young people to art — and give exposure to young people’s art.
“I just thought that how neat for these kids, that they’ve been invited to show in a gallery,” Leonard said. “And also for the parents, ‘Oh, my kid’s stuff, here it is in a small gallery in town and somebody cares enough.’ A lot of the schools, the first thing they dump are the arts when money gets tight and I really feel that arts are important.”
Benecio hopes the gallery encourages others to try their hand at artistic expression. That sentiment was echoed by his teacher, who said the gallery will push young artists to do exactly that.
“This is a show worth seeing even for local professionals because it’s inspirational,” Hand said. “It’s really amazingly inspirational to me and to the other adults who have seen it how talented these kids are and what they can do. It’s really kind of an encouragement to all of us, I think, to kind of work harder and do more.”
“Young Artists Exhibition” is free to the public and is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays through July 14.
