March is Youth Art Month

March is Youth Art Month 

Lynnae Burns

WestCental-VP

YES! It is Youth Art Month time! I know that many of you have been busy preparing your student 

art for our annual Youth Art Month Exhibits. Our middle school art teachers just completed 

hanging our citywide annual art exhibit in celebration of YAM at our public library. Our 

elementary art staff will soon be joining us and displaying art in both our north and south branch 

public libraries of La Crosse. During these shows, our district invites each of our school board 

members to come view the exhibits and select one piece of art to hang in our school district 

boardroom. Late in spring, students and their families are invited to a fine arts recognition 

ceremony to meet the board members that chose their work. These artworks get framed and 

are displayed for the school district board and attendees to see until the following Youth Art 

Month shows. This event has been a wonderful way to showcase and celebrate our youth artists 

in our school community.

Let us embrace our regional and state level Youth Art Month Exhibits. I have been enjoying 

seeing and hearing from the regional VP’s on their regional exhibits. This has been an amazing 

opportunity to oversee over 30 of our region’s teacher YAM submissions. Our regional show is 

being installed at the Heider Center for the Arts in West Salem, and will be on display starting 

February 2nd. Our exhibit will end with a closing reception for the artists and their families on 

February 19th from 6-7:30pm. Shortly after that, this show will be packaged up and be ready for 

transit to the State Capital Exhibit on February 21st. 

This year’s change to our Youth Art Month submission allowed all WAEA members to submit up 

to five student works (two more than last year) with three of those five going on to the State 

Capital YAM Show. We anticipate that the State Capital Rotunda will be overflowing with the 

magnificent artworks from the art studio classroom from all over the state. It is my hope that 

each of you is taking the time to celebrate your students’ artistic accomplishments with them 

and their families. 

YES! I can’t wait to see our art fill the Capital.

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