The featured art exhibit at the SouthShore Regional Library in Ruskin during the month of February is artwork created by the instructors and students at the Winthrop Arts Mobile Art Factory. The exhibit has two components: one is a collection of paintings created by children in kindergarten through fourth grade, and the other is created by students in fifth grade through middle school.
The Winthrop Arts Mobile Art Factory is an outreach program run by Winthrop Arts. This grant-funded program provides instructors who give free art classes to underserved children residing in the Wimauma area. The exhibit was done by the students who attend the program at Hispanic Services Council in Wimauma.
“We are so excited to be able to publicly show the artwork created by the children in the Winthrop Arts Mobile Art Factory,” said Bryant Martinez, the lead art instructor at the Winthrop Arts Mobile Art Factory. “It has been such a pleasure to create art with these students. Art is the great equalizer. No matter how your day was or what your life circumstances are, art allows you to breathe, create and feel at peace.”
Martinez works with the older students while Mariel Bell works with the younger students. The instructors helped their students to create wonderful works of art. Both are artists and they, too, have each created an original work of art for the exhibit.
The students under Martinez’s direction focused on the theme of ‘Inner Peace,’ while the students under Bell focused on the theme of ‘Home.’
The exhibit is on view at the SouthShore Regional Library, located at 15816 Beth Shields Way in Ruskin, through the end of February. An artists’ reception is scheduled for Thursday, February 27 from 5-7 p.m. The community is invited to attend.
The Winthrop Arts Mobile Art Factory was established in 2018. Since that time, hundreds of students in the Wimauma area have received free arts instruction through partners such as Hispanic Services Council and Wimauma Elementary School.
The Winthrop Arts Mobile Art Factory is funded by generous grants from Suncoast Credit Union, Wells Fargo, the Arts Council of Hillsborough County and Interfaith Social Action Council of Sun City Center, as well as donations from the community.
For more information on Winthrop Arts and the Winthrop Arts Mobile Art Factory, please visit www.winthroparts.org or call 758-5161.
