22-23 Art on Main Kicks Off with 70 BPS Students’ Artwork Displayed Downtown

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The 2022-23 season of the Batesville Community Education Foundation’s (BCEF) mural project in downtown Batesville recently kicked off with the installation of the first display, created by students at the Batesville Primary School (BPS). The mural features representations of the BPS staff members created by approximately 70 students.

“This is our third season of Art on Main,” explained BCEF executive director Anne Wilson. “This year’s theme is the Batesville Community School Corporation (BCSC) staff, allowing the art teachers at each school to take that idea and be creative as they like. BPS art teacher Laura Gilland certainly helped her students create a real masterpiece.”

Gilland produced coloring page versions of the photographs of each of the roughly 70 school staff members for students to choose from. The budding artists then used their coloring talents to transform the drawings, depicting what they think the staff members look like. After all of the artwork from BPS students was submitted, one representation of each staff member was chosen to be included in the mural.

“We appreciate all of the hard work and time it took for this project to come to life,” shared Jama Linkel-Cleghorn, BCEF board member and program chair.  “From the hours spent by the art teacher creating the staff outlines to all of the students who submitted artwork, plus the donated time by BHS alumnus Jimmy Rowland to create the montage—this truly was a community effort.”

The Art on Main program, sponsored by BCEF, features artwork from students from the four Batesville Community School Corporation (BCSC) buildings on a rotating basis. BCEF would like to thank BPS art teacher Laura Gilland for her help with her school’s entry. In addition, Jimmy Rowland from Rowland Graphics donated his time to install the mural and Nick Maple, owner of the building, provided the use of his location for the display. BCEF board member Ryan Holcomb assisted Linkel-Cleghorn with the program. The BPS mural will be on display until sometime in December, when artwork from the Batesville Intermediate School (BIS) will be installed.