Five District Juried Art Exhibit Returns After 2-Year COVID Break

The 19th Annual Robideau/Lamitie King Exhibit featuring art created by 6 - 12 grade students from Brushton-Moira, Chateaugay, Malone, Salmon River and St. Regis Falls will open at Downtown Artist Cellar on May 6th. The exhibit, honoring long time Malone photographer Norbert Robideau and respected Middle School art teacher Karen Lamitie-King, will be co- sponsored by Foothills Art Society (foothillsartsociety.com) and Downtown Artist Cellar (downtownartistcellar.com) this year. For added accessibility, online viewing will be a new feature of this show. Gallery hours are Thurs. - Sat., 11:00am - 5:00pm and Sun. 12:00pm - 3:00pm. The exhibit will remain hung until Thurs., June 2.

Art teachers, Christie Thompson & Jenna Durant (Brushton-Moira); Sarah Hamilton Moore (Chateaugay); Edith Thompson & Josie Sprague (Malone); Layla Mayville, Kylee Disotelle, Tsienhente Herne & Cashlynn Colbert (Salmon River); and McKenna Lagarry (St. Regis Falls) will be selecting their students' finest works of art. Michael Hart will be professionally hanging the exhibit. There will be approximately 100 works of art, in a variety of media, on display. Iotsienhiio Thompson, an 8th grade student from Salmon River was chosen to have her self-portrait "Smirk" on the cover of this year's invitation.

Since this is a Juried Show, Noreen Sadue has the difficult job of choosing award winners in the categories of Drawing, Painting, Sculpture and Mixed Media for both Middle and High School levels. Noreen is a professional artist from the Plattsburgh area who also taught High School art as well as being an adjunct professor of Photography at SUNY. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in the area.

Downtown Artist Cellar is located in the back of 410 East Main Street. In addition to gallery hours, the exhibit will be open from 5:00pm - 7pm for an Indoor/Outdoor Closing Reception on Thurs., June 2. Playing the fiddle and bodhran for the first hour will be the very talented Goddard sisters from Nicholville, NY. Stewart's Shops have generously donated ice cream for this event and sundae making is encouraged. At 6:00pm the Awards Ceremony will begin. Participation certificates will be handed out to all participants. Middle and High School award winners will be recognized. Middle School award winners will be gifted with select art supplies and High School award winners with engraved plaques with a framed copy of their winning art. New this year is a People's Choice Award. Everyone is encouraged to vote for their favorite work of art in the show and a special award will be presented to that young artist.

These awards were made possible with donations from Norma Race, Sarah Seymour and local teachers unions.

Two annual Scholarships will be presented. The Karen Lamitie-King Scholarship, given by the Malone Federation of Teachers, will be presented to an outstanding senior art student from FA who will be attending college for art in the Fall. The Arnold Sauther (longtime art teacher at Salmon River) Scholarship will be presented by Foothills Art Society to a gifted senior art major from one of the BOCES school districts who plans on continuing their art studies at the collegiate level. The public is invited to show their support of these creative young artists by attending the exhibit and/or Closing Reception.

To help with the cost of putting on this exhibit, Arnold Sauther has donated a painting "Coleus Pattern" for a silent auction. The painting can be viewed online, and simple bidding form filled out at either website. The winner of the painting will be announced at the end of the reception on June 2. All proceeds from the silent auction will be used towards the 2022 or future Robideau/Lamitie-King Exhibits.