Knoxville Museum of Art Fair supports youth
Children enjoyed creating pottery and painting keepsake boxes Saturday at the arts and crafts tent.
A weeklong celebration of East Tennessee’s art came to an end as the Knoxville Museum of Art held its first art fair on Saturday, Sept. 20. This year, the museum implemented a Pottery with a Purpose program, reaching 450 students in the area. Students’ work was displayed and made available for sale at Saturday’s art fair to raise money for a kiln room in the museum.
Sylvia Peters, current president of the Knoxville Museum of Art Guild, is enthusiastic about involving youth in the museum as often as possible.
“The things that are the best in our society, the creative things, come from children having great experiences so that’s what we’re really after,” said Peters.
Peters talked about the attention this week’s festivities have brought to the museum and the opportunity to promote art across East Tennessee.
“My intention actually is to make the public and the city and everybody aware of the fact that if we don’t stop taking art out of these schools we’re going to lose generations of students,” said Peters.
However, Peters is optimistic about future programs to further the discussion of art education for children.
“Next year, we’ll probably do a project called Chairs for Children and we’ll probably have children building chairs and things like that and auctioning them off,” said Peters.
Peters is confident that museum will continue to thrive and grow throughout the next year. She is already looking forward to celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Knoxville Museum of Art in 2015. She is passionate about continuing to bring children into the museum.
“We want to see these kids running up and down the stairs it’s like the place is alive, it’s vibrant,” said Peters.
For more information on Knoxville Museum of Art events, click here.
Edited by Jessica Carr
