Kids craft clever artwork at Boys & Girls Club

Nikki Carlson

Children, with their parents in-tow, scanned the display panels looking for their own works of art they had entered in the Fine Arts Festival Tuesday evening at the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line. Congratulations from parents and family members echoed from corner to corner of the display panels as children's eyes widened with excitement as soon as they discovered their colorful pieces on display.

Boys & Girls Club members began making art pieces in July, with some pieces getting done the day before the show. The club fine arts and crafts program summer facilitator Karlee Young worked with the students before entering her freshman year at Montana State University-Billings in the fall. Young, who is majoring in elementary education and minoring in art, said one day out of the week was set aside for members in the arts and crafts room to work on their art pieces for the show. The other of the days during the week were for take-home arts and crafts.

Debbie Kallenberger took over as program facilitator during the school year. Kallenberger said the members continued working diligently on their masterpieces throughout the year.

Boys & Girls Club Executive Director Krista Solomon said the art festival wasn't the first show for the club members.

"It's the first one that's been done in a long time," she said.

In fact, Young, Solomon's daughter, placed first in the local show at the club as an eighth-grader for a self-portrait she created, which she went on to enter in the regional and then national shows.

Kallenberger said she's hoping the Fine Arts Festival will be an annual event at the club.

Solomon said the club was given a $4,500 fine arts grant from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, which stemmed from the Rockefeller Foundation. The money was used to supply the Havre club's arts and crafts room with pottery wheels, easels, paint, pastels, projectors, notepads and more.

Young said club members of any age could enter the festival, but the majority of entrants were between the ages of 6 and 12. There were first-place winners in each category, based on their ages groups.

Havre Middle School art teacher Pam Fanning, Havre High School art teacher Char Sticka and Community Alliance Church pastor and local artist Tim Zerger judged the pieces of art work.

"Keep creating great art," Zerger said. "It could only get better, the more they work at it."

First-place finishers at the Havre show will move on to the southwest regional show in March. The location of the regional show has not been determined yet. The first-place finishers took home their choice of a watercolor paint set, a box of colored pencils, twistable crayons or modeling clay.

Those who will be competing in the regional show are: Natalie Verploegen in sculpture; Carsyn Vogel and Shayn Crowder in print making; Faith Gasvoda and Patience Malley in pastel; Jessica Nivens and Aubrey Welch in watercolor; Debora Moody and Holly Strobel in multicolored drawing; Devyn Solomon and Carter Nystrom in collage; Ravyn Hoffman in mixed media; Alexis Flansburg and Hannah Bricker in oil or acrylic painting; and Welch, Jaclynn Waldron, Collin Welch and Alexia Stingley in group project.

Kallenberger and Young were impressed with the entries in the club's show this year.

"I think it went really well," Kallenberger said. "I thought the kids did a really nice job."

"All of the kids worked really hard, and I'm really proud of them," Young added. "I think it turned out to be a really great event."