Teen Art Board making an impact at Albany Museum of Art
Staff Photo: Alan Mauldin
By Alan Mauldin
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ALBANY — It was an evening of show and sell on Thursday for the 65 or so teen participants who have been creating artwork over the previous school year at the Albany Museum of Art.
The artwork lining the walls displayed a year of the Teen Art Board’s activities, giving grownups a chance to view and purchase some of the paintings and drawings in a silent auction.
For its third year, the teen board chose to put on the viewing and silent auction, with half of the proceeds going toward the program and half to help fund other AMA programs.
The Art Board comprises 14 students, and about 65 middle and high school and college students participate in the museum’s teen art program. The program includes a student Saturday event that provides materials for a morning of creating art.
“I think it was a great experience,” Reece Ellion said of her time on the Teen Art Board.
Ellion, one of three co-presidents of the board, has been a member for two years and will attend Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., in the fall.
During her time on the board, she spearheaded a drive to install an Art-o-mat machine as part of an Eagle Scout leadership project. The former cigarette machine now dispenses playing card-sized packs of miniature artworks.
“It was cool,” she said. “I got to do something cool. I love bouncing ideas off of people.”
The recent high school graduate said leaving for college will be “bittersweet.”
“I’m definitely going to come back and do stuff with the Museum of Art and the Teen Board,” she said. “I think it definitely helped me on my journey and going to art school.”
In a previous annual project, the board made art kits for children of women staying at the Liberty House domestic violence shelter.
“This year it was a fundraiser and their end of the year event,” Annie Vanoteghem, the AMA’s education and public programming director, said. “They wanted to focus on young artists.
“They try to encourage local teen artists and encourage them to create a community. It’s been great for the teens.”
Across the country, teenagers are the lowest group in terms of attendance and participation in art museums, Vanoteghem said, so the Teen Board is one way to bring more young people onboard.
“Encouraging them is the way they can learn how nonprofits work, how boards work and create programs and outreach,” she said.
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