Art students from Carlton Comprehensive High School took over a portion of the South Hill Mall on Saturday for a live and interactive art show “Live Art for Peace and Love.”
The interactive art show will be on display for the month at South Hill Mall. South Hill donated supplies and students and teachers donated their time for the art show which has three distinctive parts.
“The first gallery that we see here is a poetry gallery, the second gallery is the art gallery so students who are painting on canvas. And then the third gallery is a community gallery where we are offering people to come and send their wishes of love and peace on an interactive third gallery,” Carlton art teacher and mentor Melainie Merasty said.
The Wahkohtowin Art Gallery will feature three separate collections in the South Hill Mall corridor adjacent to the Service Canada offices.
“I guess it is purely about giving the students the chance to be able to express their artistry and then also their voices in terms of what they think love and peace is about,” Merasty said.
She explained that they have displayed art in the past but this was the first time they have done so interactively.
“We have had lots of people drop by, I am sure there has been almost 100 people who have passed by and commented,” Mersaty said.
She explained that the prominent location of the display was a great aspect for the interactive nature. They worked from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.
“Honestly it’s just wonderful to brighten up this space.,” Merasty said.
“This has been such a success, especially the poetry. The poetry has been successful so I can imagine us doing something like this again,” she added.
Visual artist Rachel Gibson was pleased by the amount of traffic the display received during the day and the display itself was important to her.
“It means a lot to me because I can display what I am passionate about because I am very passionate about art and also my fellow students and friends we can express ourselves also,” she said.
“Yeah we had a fair amount of traffic that interacted with the other displays,”
Karrisa Manseau, one of the poets for the poetry portion also felt that the display could showcase passion.
“I feel like it was really important because it gave people an opportunity to obviously showcase their talent but also express emotions and show what they are passionate about,” she said,
She said that poetry is underrated as an art show. The aspect of peace and love as a theme was expressed in both words and paintings in the display.
“I feel like showing peace and love through your words is so important because a lot of people don’t know how to express through their voice so writing it down can give people an opportunity to even relate to it,” Manseau said.
