WCA on Display at Young Artists Exhibit
Each year the Saint Louis Art Museum hosts an open-call young artists competition, encouraging students and other young artists ages 13 to 18 to submit artwork to be displayed in the museum. The museum received many submissions this year, and two Westminster students, senior Brooke Carter and junior Florence Sarra, were selected.
In John 10:10, Jesus tells us He came so that we could have life more abundant. Art changes how we see the world and often how we engage it. For Brooke, this was an opportunity to engage with anxiety and what it feels like to encounter stress.
“I created a piece about a man that wears a helmet that is not closed. There are bees swarming around him and crawling in the helmet. The bees represent stress. He can’t escape stress and anxiety. He has to fight it head-on.”
Visual arts have everything to do with living more abundantly and can often help us process the experiences we go through and the emotions we feel. That is the mission of the Visual Arts Department: to teach students to see the wonder of God’s creation, to equip them with skills and opportunities for personal expression, and to shepherd each individual toward a creative practice that can look inward while reaching outward to engage and inspire others. John Sarra, Director of Fine Arts at Westminster, is particularly proud of Brooke and Florence and their accomplishments:
“It takes courage for them to risk the rejection that is possible in any application process. Having success in this process opens up a whole new world of possibilities for them and will connect them to a community of viewers, peers, and professionals that they might otherwise have considered to be out of their reach. Ideally, this will lead them toward more such experiences.”
For both Brooke and Florence, Westminster’s art programs have been instrumental in their development as artists. Florence, who discovered a love for printmaking through Westminster, was inspired to create a piece she found a deep connection with.
“Westminster’s art program has supported my love for many types of media,” Florence says. “I actually created my piece during my printmaking class. I was able to utilize both my skills in block printing and monotype.”
Both works of art will be displayed at the Saint Louis Art Museum until January 2023 in the Student Gallery. There will also be a public reception in the gallery in honor of all the fantastic young artists, including Brooke and Florence, on Friday, October 7, from 5-7 p.m. This event will be free and open to anyone, and we encourage you to go and support our amazing artists!
