Visitors to College of the Desert and UC Riverside’s Palm Desert Graduate campus have had the opportunity to enjoy the works of talented PSUSD high school artists this month at annual exhibitions at those sites.
The “Sign of the Times” collaboration between PSUSD and the SCRAP Gallery featured creative recycled street signs at the Marks Art Center exhibit that ran from May 2 through May 24 with an artists’ reception held on May 9. The Walter N. Marks Center for the Arts is a non-profit cultural and educational facility on COD’s campus with three galleries, courtyard and sculpture garden.
PSUSD Arts Coordinator Louisa Castrodale, left, and SCRAP Gallery Director Karen Riley.
“This year our show at COD was a culmination of the work from a studio art day with the SCRAP Gallery and artist-in-residence Marnie Navarro,” said PSUSD Arts Coordinator Louisa Castrodale. “Teams of students from our four comprehensive high schools and one alternative school site worked to redesign discarded street signs, in the style of street artist Chet Abraham.”
The UCR exhibition, which opened with an artist reception last week, runs through June 15 and is the fourth annual exhibition curated by Castrodale, which showcases artwork in various genres created by high school students throughout the District. This year’s show features ceramics and photography from Cathedral City High, 3D artworks from Desert Hot Springs High, acrylic flora and fauna paintings from Mount San Jacinto High and Conte Crayon still life drawings from Rancho Mirage High.
“For the UCR Palm Desert show, we have all five of the high schools showing some of the best artwork from the school year in six separate groupings,” said Castrodale.
This year’s UCR show features ceramics and photography from Cathedral City High, 3D artworks from Desert Hot Springs High, acrylic flora and fauna paintings from Mount San Jacinto High and Conte Crayon still life drawings from Rancho Mirage High.
“Each year we strive to produce work that showcases the talents of our student artists,” said Castrodale. “I always enjoy the public’s reaction to the talent and energy coming from our young artists!”
(Editor’s Note: The featured image is titled, “Louisa, Ruth. It is of Louisa Castrodale and Steinway Society President Ruth Moir, the subjects of one of the portraits in UCR show exhibit collection.)
