The Searcy Arts Council, a nonprofit organization that is part of the Searcy Parks and Recreation Department, is hosting an art show featuring local school children’s art projects at the Searcy Art Gallery.

There was a reception, specifically for the families and friends of the children whose art is being displayed, on March 10 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The Searcy Art Gallery, located at 300 E. Race St., houses an art show of school children's art every year in the spring.

The display features art projects from kindergarten through eight grade students from White County schools. Each art teacher chooses a piece of art from each grade he or she teaches, mattes it, and sends it to the Searcy Art Gallery to be framed and put on display. The display usually has between 40 and 50 pieces of children’s art each year, Executive Director Shirley Baugh said.

“The parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles [of the featured children] say, ‘We put their art on the refrigerator, and we didn’t know to display it like this,’” Baugh said. “And we tell them, ‘Yes, matte it and frame it, and you’ll be able to hang original art.’ It’s fun to see how excited the students are, and the parents, too.”

For every child whose art is put in the gallery, there is a whole grade full of other students who do not have their art displayed, said Demaree Britton, who teaches art at Harding Academy.

“We do about 10 or 12 art projects each year, and I keep them until the end of the year to send home,” Britton said. “So I just went back through and gathered the best pieces- one from each grade- to send over there.”

Britton said that using chalk pastels is a significant part of what the fourth grade art class does each year.

“The kids have drawn a wild animal,” Britton said. “They learned how to draw it from looking at the shapes in the animal they see. The kid that was chosen, he did a chimpanzee, and he did that using just a photograph to look from.”

The student artwork will be on display through the month of March. The Searcy Art Gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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