Coaldale art display showcases student works from several schools

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on April 8, 2025.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Coaldale Public Library will be hosting a first-of-its-kind student art exhibit, to provide students from five different schools an opportunity to display their art starting Tuesday.

While they have hosted student art in the past, program co-ordinator Myla Demers explains this is the first time multiple schools are taking part at the same time.

“Each school will be submitting seven frames of work,” she says. “We have art from students of all ages who have submitted their works to be featured,” says Demers.

“We were inspired by Lethbridge’s Arts Alive initiative, that is normally hung at the Southern Alberta Arts Gallery, but we noticed that there wasn’t anything like that for our rural students. So we wanted to provide that opportunity to them as well to celebrate arts within our community.”

The art that will be displayed is from different media including acrylic on canvas, acrylic paint on card-stock, and pencil crayon on paper.

“I know in past shows with that we’ve done with singular schools there’s been pastel, there’s been digital art, there’s been photography as well,” says Demers.

Library staff are excited to be able to display the art made by so many talented students who attend school in Coaldale, she says.

“It’s important for kids to know that the things that they care about matters…since not only the kids have submitted for themselves, it’s also teachers who have seen the talent within their classrooms and suggested to those kids that they should submit something.”

She adds that she believes it is very meaningful when someone can see the talent that someone else has and encourage them to have the confidence to present that to other people.

 “I think it will help build confidence for these young artists and show them that their work is important and that it’s worth sharing with others,” says Demers.

Since this is the first time they have multiple schools participating in the art exhibit at once, Demers says they had a lot of help from the Coaldale Friends of the Library Society.

“They donated funds to purchase additional frames so that we would have enough frames to hang a show of this size and magnitude, so we’re very grateful to them for the help.”

The grand opening ceremony will take place on Tuesday at the Coaldale Public Library from 7:15-8:30 p.m. and the exhibit will run until May 24. Friends of the Library will be providing refreshments, students, teachers, families, friends and anyone who wants to see the exhibit opening is invited to attend, says Demers.