PHOTO: The Grandview Arts Council sponsored artist Cheryl Shelton’s opening reception at The View Community Center on September 5. Photo by Liz Ogle, Grandview Arts Council
Budding Grandview Arts Council holds art opening, seeks members
By Jill Draper
The Grandview Arts Council is on a path of revival. The nonprofit was organized with a mission to promote the arts, but died out until several years ago when interested citizens brought it back to life. Now the council is sponsoring an exhibit of acrylic landscapes by local painter Cheryl Shelton. The exhibit begins with a reception at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, in The View Community Center, 13500 Byars Rd.
At the same time, the council is looking for new board members and supporters to help with nurturing artists, building audiences and encouraging creativity in the community. Board member Kim Randolph says everyone is welcome, and residing in Grandview is not a requirement.
“We want people to be on the board or just sit in on our meetings. We want fresh faces, multiple ages and new mindsets,” she says, “people who are intrigued by what artists we have in our own backyard.”
Last year the arts council worked with drama teachers to sponsor two plays at Grandview High School, and in 2017 they helped put on a student jazz concert. They also regularly showcase K-12 student artwork from Grandview and Martin City schools, and every three months they issue a call for photographers, painters or mixed media artists whose work will be featured at The View.
Shelton’s exhibit of 24 paintings will be displayed for three months there, and for another three months at City Hall. A longtime Grandview resident, she learned oil painting from her North Kansas City high school teacher, Porter Price, in 1964. Later she switched to watercolors, painting off and on while raising children. She began working in acrylics while watching her grandchildren, intrigued by their South Dakota vacation photos of buffalo and mesas.
“My daughter-in-law Leslie Shelton encouraged me to paint her a picture, and she didn’t let up until I did,” Shelton says. Her granddaughter Ashley later helped post her work on Facebook at “A Lifetime in Painting.”
Shelton, who paints with both brush and palette knife on an easel in her dining room, says being honored at an exhibition is “a bucket list thing” for her. Her landscapes portray scenes from the American West as well as local spots like a waterfall on Blue River Road and Bennett Spring State Park. Other subjects include images of woolly mammoths and galaxies in space.
Learn more about the Grandview Arts Council at 816-316-4881, artscouncilgrandview@gmail.com or “Grandview Arts Council” on Facebook.