By John Kline
Goshen’s downtown took on the feel of a massive art gallery Friday with the kickoff of the First Fridays Spring Art Fest.
Starting off the celebration was the inaugural Youth Art Hop, where 88 original pieces of artwork from 92 local student artists were unveiled at various downtown businesses over the course of the evening.
“This is our first year doing the downtown Youth Art Hop, and we’re pretty excited about it,” said First Fridays Director Grace Hunsberger. “The organizing leading up to it was crazy, but we’re really excited to have this opportunity to showcase the students’ work.
“There are very few opportunities for kids who have artistic talent, so we were excited to have downtown Goshen be a venue for that,” she said.
Lyman Hug, owner of Shutter Hugs Custom Framing, agreed. Shutter Hugs was one of several downtown stores to feature student art during the event.
“Art Hop is something new for First Fridays, and I think it’s really a good thing to do, because I think there are a lot of talented kids out there in the schools that need recognition,” Hug said. “You know, some of these kids are third-, fourth-, fifth-grade kids, and they’re already doing some pretty impressive stuff, so I think Art Hop is a great thing.
“These kids need to get their stuff up where people can see it, and get encouraged to continue to work on it even if they’re not going to make a career out of it. So I think this is a great opportunity for that,” he said.
“Lauren Hodges, the owner of Accents here, played a huge roll in getting this all together,” Hunsberger said. “She donated all the matting and a lot of the organizing time, so I can’t say enough about her.”
Brooke Boyts, a junior at Fairfield High School, was one of the six student award winners honored at Friday’s event.
According to Boyts, events such as Youth Art Hop are invaluable because they help give students like her the confidence and drive needed to realize their full artistic potential.
“I do think events like this are important for students, especially when you do stuff that is very tedious, because after a while you can get kind of discouraged,” Boyts said. “I think doing stuff like this makes you step back and think ‘Wow, I can do something big, and people will like it, and it’s worth all the time and effort I you put into it.”
Hannah Gerig-Meyer, an art teacher at Bethany Christian Schools, couldn’t agree more.
“I think events like this give students a lot of confidence by allowing them to see their work out on display and by motivating them to keep creating,” Gerig-Meyer said. “It just builds excitement for art, and that’s always a good thing.”
While the Youth Art Hop awards ceremony concluded Friday night, all featured works will remain available for public viewing as part of a month-long local art exhibit.
In addition, the Spring Art Fest continues today with the Goshen Open Studio Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The event takes visitors on a self-guided tour of professional art studios located in and around the Goshen area.
For more information on the tour or to download a map, visit www.goshenopenstudio.com.
