Hatboro-Horsham and Scatter Joy Gallery team up to display student art
By Matt Schickling
Wire Staff Reporter
Art students of Hatboro-Horsham School District celebrated the opening night of their “Best of HH” exhibit at Scatter Joy Gallery of Kathy Davis Studios in Horsham on Friday, March 28.
The reception, attended by about 150 people, marked the beginning of a month-long showing of artwork composed by students from kindergarten through high school. The gallery hosts 45 pieces of artwork from the students, and they will remain on exhibit until April 23. This comes after a similar showing presented by Hatboro-Horsham students last year, except that time only high school students were included.
And the students in the different grades worked with several different mediums, from photography to graphic design, abstract and realist paintings to three-dimensional sculptures. This partnership between Hatboro-Horsham School District and Kathy Davis Studios has given each student the experience of being a professional artist.
“We decided we wanted to give our younger students an opportunity to do this,” said Bill Lessa, who helped coordinate the event. “You can see the talent growing through the grades.”
The 10 art teachers throughout the district selected work from four to five students each for display in the gallery. The age range and ability “wasn’t so much a larger scale, but a different scale” compared to the year before, said Lessa.
Lessa had been superintendent of schools at Hatboro-Horsham for eight years, and retired about three and a half years ago. Before that, he had been an art teacher.
“In my travels as a superintendent, I met Kathy Davis, who is also a former art teacher in Hatboro-Horsham. When I retired, she offered me a part-time job, which has grown over the years,” he said.
Now, Lessa’s responsibilities include overseeing community relations and setting up shows for the Scatter Joy Gallery, which is only one of three entities at Kathy Davis Studios. The other two are an art studio and gallery store. On the night of the “Best of HH” reception, a portion of the store’s sales were given back to the school district’s art programs.
“We do a lot of philanthropic work through [Kathy Davis’] company,” Lessa said. “We try to create partnerships that will benefit people in our community.”
Lessa mentioned the Sunshine Foundation, which answers the dreams of chronically ill, seriously ill, physically challenged and abused children ages 3 to 18, and the National Guild for Community Arts Education, which fosters the creation of community arts development, as organizations Kathy Davis Studios supports and is involved with.
Still, the studio’s highest priority is its work with the school district. This is why Lessa got in contact with Lori Gallagher, a veteran art teacher in the district who had previously been arts chairwoman for the Hatboro-Horsham schools.
Gallagher had coordinated the event on the school district’s end last year, and decided to take on the responsibility again.
“I had a great relationship with Bill [Lessa] through the years and when he mentioned the gallery, I jumped on it right away,” Gallagher said. “How could you not take advantage of that?”
Lori understands the importance and enjoys the challenge of guiding students through their artistic development. She describes the work of the younger students as comparable to the work of the high schoolers.
“What the kids learn is actually very similar as you go through the stages of teaching, but the achievement level of what the kids can do with that elevates,” she said.
She described the basics of art as elements and principles of design. “Elements are the tools you have as an artist — circles, lines, shape and color — and principles are what you do with that.”
As artists become more skilled, they begin to be able to integrate these two dynamics to make a viewer feel a certain way or understand a certain thing. “A lot of work goes into making that happen,” she said.
And, an exhibit like this goes a long way to encourage that growth.
“In the end, these kind of events are really about the kids,” said Lessa. “They looked so proud of their work, on display in a professional gallery.”
