Press "Enter" to skip to content

TWU hosts Art Day for high school students

Texas Woman’s University’s division of Visual Arts hosted Art Day on Sept. 23 for high school students interested in the arts.

TWU’s Art Day took place in the TWU Fine Arts building. The event allowed high school students interested in a career in art and their art teachers to interact with art faculty and students. The event hosted guest artists such as Omar Gonzales, Kill Joy, Benjamin Munoz and Lars Roeder. 

“The purpose of art day is to show high schoolers the rich possibilities in visual arts, not just in terms of all the wonderful things that can be made with various mediums, whether that’s traditional painting, printmaking, sculpture, but also that there are rich possibilities and careers in visual arts,” associate professor of graphic design and head of Art Day Sheli Petersen said. 

Finished screen-printing piece.

The event was an interactive, hands-on experience where students were able to attend workshops covering digital painting, lumen prints, silkscreen and t-shirt printing. The organizers of this event also hosted a portfolio review session to help students prepare for art school admissions

“One workshop was mine, that was digital painting and I shared with the students how to do lighting and colorizing techniques using GIMP, which is basically an open-source free version of Photoshop,” Petersen said. “That’s why I chose it. Because it is more accessible and more available.”

The star of the event was the screen-printing pieces made with a steamroller, said Petersen. The guest artists carved wood to make their designs and then laid paint and fabric on the wood. The steamroller drove over the art to make large screen-printing designs such as a person and a fish tank.

“As far as I can tell, it seems like spirits are high and people are excited,” Petersen said.

Overall, the event was a success, Petersen said. The event’s registration was maxed out and attendance was high. Students from around the DFW area attended, with Lewisville and Centennial high school attending, among others. 

Maddie LaRosa Ray can be reached via email at mray20@twu.edu.

One Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *