Several classes assisted with project

In time for the 150th Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade, the Brumberg Building in downtown Ironton will have its empty windows filled with the art of students from Ironton High School.

The students have been working from the first weeks of April to design and then paint large plywood boards to cover some 72 windows in the building, possibly making it the second biggest art piece in town besides the floodwall murals.

IHS art and American sign language teacher Caitlin Knore is excited to have such a huge canvas for her students.

“It is such a dream that they get to have their artwork shown out for the whole community to see,” she said. “This is an art teacher’s dream to have their students work shown like this. I mean, this what we go to college for, to have everyone see what these kids can do and for everyone to see the importance of the arts to these children. They love it.”

Knore said the project came about after superintendent Dean Nance contacted her. He said Compston Wealth Management was interested in helping beautify the Brumberg Building for the parade.

Knore asked other teachers if their students were interested in painting boards for the building and got positive responses from the math department, English department, German and Spanish classes, anatomy class, finance class, and the senior Social Studies class.

In the end, around 133 of the 400 students at Ironton High School agreed to work on paintings. Students worked solo or in groups. Some do the project during art class and some stay after to school to work on it.

“I told them they had three different themes to choose from; Ironton inspiration, patriotic or free range, where they could do anything they wanted,” Knore said. “I am more than pleased with the results. I am so excited with what these kids have done. It was more than I ever expected or hoped to imagine.

On Thursday, Erica Collins, an IHS junior, was painting in the details of a baby tiger on her artwork. She said thought about her project for a long time before she started.

“That represents my high school and the age of it represents me when I came to Ironton,” she explained, adding that she was four years old when she moved here. “The girl is me now, and the flowers represent my favorite season, which is spring.”

She said she thinks it is amazing that her and other students’ art is going to be on such a public display.

“Everyone gets to see the artwork we have all done,” she said. “And they get to see how other people see Ironton.”

Eden Silva, a junior, was working on a solo painting of a hot air balloon.

“The balloon is zentangled and I don’t know what the background is going to be yet,” she said. She said she learned the zentangle painting method when she was a sophomore and it was one of her best grades. “It’s a bunch of awkward patterns. Kind of like a ‘beautiful oops.’”

This was Silva’s second painting. She also did one with Wesley Monroe and they did an American flag that faded into an eagle in a sunset.

She said it was kind of scary to have the artworks displayed in such a public way.

“I usually just draw on my own,” she said. “But I also want everyone to see what we’ve learned in this class.”

Knore said the art project has truly been a community project. Casey and Kimmy Compston with Compston Wealth Management have made sure that donations were made to cover the school’s cost of paint. Sherwin Williams donated supplies and the waterproofing material so the paint doesn’t run when it gets wet.

The Community Action Organization owns the Brumberg Building and they donated the plywood. They also pick up the art works as they are completed and will be installing the boards onto the window frames.

“The way everyone has shown that they support the kids, and the arts too, has just been incredible,” Knore said.