Lisbon students’ artwork will be featured on historic downtown facade
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LISBON - Lisbon's aspiring young artists will soon have a new venue showcasing their creative expressions in a project being undertaken by Lisbon Landmark Foundation and the Lisbon Arts Initiative.
"Picture in a Window Project: Art Contest for Local Kids" was conceived to showcase artworks by village students between kindergarten and the 11th grade. Young artists were asked if they had a fun idea for a drawing to cheer up one of the windows of the historic Garretson Building in downtown Lisbon on North Market Street.
"There are so many students in the local schools who have so much talent," said Mark Hamilton, who is a Landmark board member as well as the owner of the Source Gallery at 40 N. Park Ave., Lisbon. He is also heading the project for the newly created Lisbon Arts Initiative nonprofit.
The winning submissions will be used and, in some cases, combined as inspiration for the final painted scenes on the protective OSB window panels being used to secure the building for future renovations, he said.
These panels will be covering all the windows of the Garretson Building until the new donated windows can be designed, ordered and installed.
The project initially intended to cover 16 windows with one art panel per window but during the finalization of the selection, it was decided to extend the project to all 23 windows and combine some related artworks into single panels to showcase the works of 38 young local artists, Hamilton said.
"This contest gives the community a place to show their artwork while cheering up the building's appearance. And we were so excited to receive more than 80 students' submitted artwork for the contest. It just shows how engaged our local kids are in the arts. It's wonderful," said Hamilton.
The Original Artworks will be shared through the Lisbon Landmark website and social media channels, as well as at upcoming Lisbon locations.
The Garretson Building - which was built around 1810 - was acquired by the foundation in 2021 after a fire partially destroyed the building. A new roof was built in 2022, and this year the foundation is focusing on replacing the windows - all 23 of them.
More than $6,000 - or roughly a quarter of the cost - has been raised through donations, Hamilton said.
Hamilton said he got the idea for the contest from thinking about the window panels as mini pop-up murals like a project created by Craig Wetzel of East Liverpool. Wetzel asked young kids from the area to submit drawings of their idea of monsters, which he subsequently used as models for a mural he hand-painted on the Quality Stamp Office Supplies and Equipment building in East Liverpool, through support of a local grant.
Contact Hamilton at sourcegallery.com for information about the project or the Lisbon Arts Initiative.