Students share artistic knowledge
Goessel High senior Jeff Franzen probably never planned on working in an art museum.
But on Wednesday, he spent the day sharing his knowledge about the Spanish artist Goya with groups of museum patrons filing through the Museo del Arte de TLC at Goessel High School.
"We had two months to research the artist," said Franzen, an upper-level Spanish student. "The fun part was looking at the pictures."
The exhibit, otherwise known as the TLC Art Museum, was on display at various locations inside GHS — the Emil Kym Memorial Art Gallery, the library, and the computer lab. Tours were conducted all day Wednesday.
Most of the collection is owned by Barbara Cowan, a Spanish teacher at GHS. Cowan also teaches at Canton-Galva High School, and in past years has taught at other nearby schools such as Moundridge and Hesston. The schools are part of The Learning Consortium, a network of distance learning classrooms — hence, the name TLC Art Museum.
The TLC Art Museum utilizes the expertise of upper-level Spanish students from both Goessel and Canton-Galva high schools. As part of their studies, each student in Spanish II or Spanish III is assigned a hispanic artist to investigate and learn about, Cowan said.
For the art museum, each student becomes a gallery docent, educating tour-goers on their artist — plus one or two more
they've been assigned for the occasion. For the six docents, four students have two artists, and two students have three artists.
Goessel junior Katherine Krehbiel was assigned the artist El Greco.
"It was fun to do the research," Krehbiel said. "I learned a lot. El Greco was accused of having faulty eyesight becausd the subjects' bodies looked long."
The gallery of artwork, which is a combination of reproductions and prints, features a wide range of artists and time periods, from the early cave drawings at Altamira to the vibrant architecture of Gaudi. The exhibit displays works from the more famous Picasso and Dali to lesser-known Murillo and Velasquez.
Fourteen artists in all comprise the exhibit, with three major groupings: the Spanish masters, Spanish modernists, and Mexican modernists, Cowan said.
This is the first year for the exhibit to be featured at Goessel, although it's been traveling for six years, Cowan said. It's been in Moundridge for the past five years.
