Beautiful paintings of Paly, newspaper pulp armatures, ceramic pieces, intricate drawings, graceful glass sculptures, and many other forms of art now decorate the Palo Alto Art Center with color and texture.

The Palo Alto Art Center opened with the annual “Youth Art Exhibit” on May 8. This district show will showcase exemplary work from students in kindergarten through students in their junior year of highschool.

There was a celebratory reception from 6 to 8 p.m. to open the exibit, featuring free food and two different workshops open to all attendants. The workshops consisted of figure drawing and ceramics. Student artsts, along with their families and friends, were encouraged to attend.

"If you have work in the show, it’s good etiquette to go to the reception. It’s a great time to give support to the artists, see what younger siblings are working on, and get inspiration," Ceramics teacher David Camner said.

“The goal of the show is to give the public and parents of the students an idea of what the art students have been doing throughout the year,” Paly Art Spectrum and Drawing and Painting teacher Anna Eng said.

Usually the best work from the art classes are selected by the teachers and then nominated to be displayed in the exhibit. Although, Camner admitted that for some of the pieces, it was just a matter of which ones were finished.

According to Eng, on May 4, she, other art teachers in the district, and Palo Alto Art Center volunteers spent the majority of the day hanging up the pieces and on May 5 they began labeling them. Because of the deadline for the opening night, students were urged to finish their work by Friday, May 6, only two days before the show.

“I love the idea of the art show, but my painting is rushed [because of it.]” Painting and Drawing sophomore Liana Ramos said.

“I’ve been working on my piece since the beginning of second semester, “ Painting and Drawing sophomore Rosie Schairer, said. “To start off the project, we walked around campus and selected an area to paint. After we made our sketch, Ms. Eng shrank it down and then projected the image on canvas for us to paint.”

"I thought that all of the 3D high school art was the best I’ve ever seen, and it’s not just ceramics that caught my eye," Ceramics art student sophomore Sarah Miller said. "The art show is a good experience for the community to see new artists that aren’t well-known and are closer to home."

“I’m so glad that Palo Alto supports the arts as much as it does,” Eng said, “because some of my friends lost their jobs in other districts because there weren’t any more art programs.”

Come to support the arts and see this beautiful display of artistic achievement at the Palo Alto Art Center. The show will be open until May 31, and there is no admissions fee, so there is no reason not to take a look.