ART: On Wednesday night, local students shared the artistic talents with community, when the Bradford Area School District K-12 Art Exhibition opened in the KOA Art Gallery at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.
Life in Bradford wasn’t so very different 75 years ago, when The Era reported on the upcoming student art show.
Page 3 of the Saturday, May 1, 1943, Era read, “The charm, originality and liveliness of a child’s creative work often escapes the eye of the practical minded adult: During the week of May 3 Art Exhibits will be held in the various elementary schools. The public is invited to visit these exhibits and to look for the child’s real expression rather than copied or traced pictures.”
However, the focus of the article revealed how current events reflected in the simple children’s art show, as evidenced by the article’s title, “Wartime Scenes in Child’s Art Need Not Alarm Parents, Says Instructor.”
By 1943, the United States was well involved in World War II, with two years and change left before the end.
In this installment of a children’s art series written in 1943 by Miss Grace Wible, supervisor of art in Bradford’s public elementary schools, she wanted to reassure parents that it’s normal for children to express their feelings of the war through their art.
“The war is very much in children’s minds. How can it be otherwise?” she writes. “It is in the newspaper headlines, the comics, the movies, and conversations. A child who could ignore it is either leading a very sheltered life or is not aware of the thing that is taking place about him.”
Grace describes in more detail how the illustrations might look.
“Airplanes, tanks, battleships and scenes of battle are much in evidence in children’s art,” stated Grace in The Era. “The use of these in illustration is a reflection of the times. They show the influence of the war on children.
“A boy may express his interest in current events or his appreciation of the action and excitement of a battle in his painting. His father when the same age may have found his vicarious excitement in playing Indian or drawing pictures of the Wild West.”
We have plenty happening in the news today, too, and there’s no doubt some of it can be seen in the pieces created in the 2017-18 school year.
The current art show at Pitt-Bradford, with artwork by students in all grade levels at BASD, will be on display in the KOA Art Gallery, Blaisdell Hall, through May 16.
