ROWLAND HEIGHTS, CA — MARCH 16, 2018 — The community is invited to an evening of art and entertainment at Rowland Unified School District’s 2018 Student Art Exhibition, sponsored by the Rowland Heights Community Center on Thursday, March 22, 2017 from 5 to 8 p.m. The event showcases the artistic talents of 54 students from Rowland and Nogales High School’s International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) visual arts programs. A giant gallery will feature these artist’s work displaying a variety of mediums including charcoal and color pencil drawing, acrylic painting, digital media and sculpture.
In addition to artwork, the exhibition will feature music performed by orchestral students from both Nogales and Rowland High Schools, along with treats and refreshments. The Rowland Heights Community Center is located at 18150 Pathfinder Road, at Pathfinder Park, in Rowland Heights.
“We are thankful that the Rowland Heights Community Center has generously offered to host this event for an opportunity for the public to learn more about the International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement visual arts programs that are available at both Nogales and Rowland High Schools,” said Nogales High School Art Teacher Robert Sotelo.
Danielle Cortez and Michelle Liang.
“This great event celebrates the talent of our higher level visual and performing art high school students,” said Rowland High School IB Visual Art Teacher Chablis Bates. “The exhibition will provide our IB seniors with an opportunity to visually communicate their own expression or voice through their curation of personal artworks.”
As students finalize their eight to 11 selections to display, they are buzzing with excitement to see how people will respond to their art. “We really want people to come to our show, explore the many types of art mediums and enjoy themselves,” said Rowland High School student Michelle Liang, whose charcoal and acrylic paintings are themed around the topic of indifference. She plans to become a doctor and attend MIT or USC.
Many students featured plan to keep art as a personal hobby to “relieve stress” as they enter college and different career fields. Rowland High School student Ashley Abeleda, whose mixed media pieces involve the theme of historical issues surrounding protests, wants to bring the message that students are aware of what is happening around them and it may surprise some adults. “I know we are teenagers and it may be hard for some to take our opinions seriously, but I think our opinions are fresh and new and the message that we have to offer are different than what people have said before.” Abeleda plans to major in pediatric nursing. Photographer Lillian Lo’s pieces are themed around various cultures and their traditional and modern day clothing. “I have four cultures mixed in me and I wanted to show both traditional day dresses and modern day fashion, such as a traditional tea ceremony picture,” said Lo, who plans to study psychology.
Nogales High School Art Students (left to right): Noel Garcia (AP art), India Moffett (AP art), Andres Nunez (IB art) and Genesis Hernandez (AP art).
From Nogales High School, International Baccalaureate student Andres Nunez will display works in charcoal, water color and oil. His art is themed on the expression of physical appearances of people. “My favorite medium is oil painting. I love the longevity of the drying time and how realistic it can appear. I plan to keep art as a hobby and attend college to study literature.” Genesis Hernandez loves to create paintings based on her feelings and emotions. “I am curious to see if people will relate the same way I felt when making my paint and pastel pieces.” India Moffett’s work is themed around the Italian renaissance and nature. “I really plan on improving myself more and making my artwork more realistic. I would like to continue to study at an art college and focus on animation.”
Nogales High School and Rowland High School are part of the Rowland Unified School District and are both International Baccalaureate (IB) World Schools. IB curriculum focuses on offering opportunities for students to become active and caring members of local, national and global communities; they focus attention on the values and outcomes of internationally minded learning and students strive to learn the IB traits of becoming inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective. Each year, graduates from both Nogales and Rowland High Schools attend the nation’s top colleges and universities. For more information, please visit www.rowlandschools.org