Art on the lawn: Show brings art to high school grounds

From staff reports
Published: September 9, 2008

It’s become a sign of the season, the time each year when art blooms on the grounds of E.C. Glass High School.

This marks the 36th annual Lynchburg Art Festival, set to take place this year from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 20.

“The art festival is one of the largest shows in Lynchburg in which a large number of artists come together, and each one shows a body of work,” says Katie Vaden, an artist and chair of this year’s festival.
The show is not juried, so rather than submitting a single work, artists can display a body of work.

“It’s a great opportunity for people in the community to see a lot of different art,” Vaden says.

The show, which started as a way to showcase artwork from around the region, will feature more than 100 artists from across the state as well as from Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.

David Eakin, a Lynchburg area artist who is helping organize this year’s show, said an artist from Ohio, Virginia Price, has come for some 30 of the 36 shows. And Donald Roakes, a Lynchburg photographer, has come for nearly every one — if not every one — of the shows.

The show’s juror, Richmond artist and National Endowment for the Arts fellow Rob Womack, will judge the entries.

Sweet Briar College Professor John Morgan, meanwhile, will judge the student show for area high school artists in grades nine though 12.

The show’s proceeds will go to a scholarship program, the sponsoring Lynchburg Art Club’s, which awards $1,000 to a student planning to go to a four-year college and to major in Fine Art.