The artistic talent of the LMSD permeates through six elementary schools, three middle schools, and two high schools and culminates in the Interschool Council (ISC) Art Show. Transpiring at the Main Line Arts Center from March first to the eighth, the exhibit featured artwork in all mediums from all grades, ranging from mugs made in twelfth grade advanced ceramics to seventh grade landscape watercolors.
The exhibit may have opened on March 1, but the preparation began far earlier—namely, within each art class, where the creative process differed among each artist. LM’s wide variety of art curriculums allows for some heterogeneity within the creative process.
The most standout—and most obvious—pieces of art were the photographs. Posted across the entranceway, each image was difficult to overlook. Shaded scenes of a football locker room, neon close-up portraits, and a bottle of spilling pills with Euphoria-style lighting all made it onto the wall, bordered with white and backed with cardstock, created by students such as Phoebe Ver Ploeg ’25, Dirk Spaeth ’25, and Calliope Borden ’25. Borden outlined her process as simply “tak[ing] the photo at a neighbors house and editing in Adobe Lightroom in Photoshop for Mr. Walsh’s Advanced Film and Photography class.”
Simultaneously, Simon Varki ’25 is a student in Metal Arts 5, and his formation of a ring involved “sawing out the amount of square silver…filing the ends perfectly flat, soldering the ends together, and hammering it into the correct shape.” As if not technical enough, he continued, “the sterling silver tubes I used were so small and delicate that they were in danger of melting if I applied direct heat to the solder joint for too long. I was able to make it work, and then I just had to set the multicolored cubic zirconia I’d picked out and clean up the surface using files, sandpaper, and steel wool.” The result? A sterling silver ring, crowned with multicolored, rainbow-patterned glazes, which was displayed on a podium in the Art Center’s main room.
Alongside metallic constructions were those made in ceramics, such as one by Zuzu Bissell ’25. Bissell’s carved ceramic mug was inspired by Starry Night and was featured next to similar works by other classmates. “Displaying my art in such a public way felt incredibly exciting and nerve-wracking,” they explained. “On one hand, it was an amazing opportunity to share my creativity with others and see how people reacted to it. It made me feel proud to see my work displayed, especially in a place where people from all different backgrounds could appreciate it.”
The prowess displayed wasn’t limited to LM. Students across the district and grade levels presented a broad spectrum of artwork—landscape watercolors, a satirical The Simpsons-style image of Girl With a Pearl Earring, a decorated name in bubble letters, a series of leaves covered in a variety of patterns, a city-scape version of Starry Night, an apple portrait, a ceramic frog, a fuschia paper mache mask, and collage boxes, to name a few. The exhibit displayed the multiformity of each art curriculum and each skill taught within them. The Main Line Art Center’s exhibit acted as a celebration of creativity—a place for students to be lauded for their growth and best work.
