SMCC art room lessons

It is not really the Sandusky Register's place to tell St. Mary's Central Catholic High School what to do within their walls or with their walls.We implore them to indulge us by hearing our thoughts on the proposed change to the back room of the art department. The walls display a collage of works of former students.First and foremost, consider the role of art in education. Lessons learned in art class reach much further than individual works of art. The study of art is the visual history of mankind.Nearly every important event in more than 2,000 years has been represented and interpreted by artists, from cave drawings of our first ancestors, to masterpieces of Rembrandt and Michelangelo, to modern computer-generated graphic art.Art is an expression of an individual's concept of the world and beyond. It can be as mathematically and mechanically precise as the works of Leonardo DaVinci or as abstract as the paintings of Jackson Pollock.Each artist's works are important to them and to those who view it. Each completed piece represents a moment in time that will never happen again.Students and alumni of SMCCHS are asking the art backroom be spared.Consider the measure of loyalty these people have to feel so strongly about the importance of the room. As one of the commenters on the art room web page pointed out so eloquently, some of the artists, such as 2016 grad Abby Bastien, are no longer with us.Private schools continue to thrive on the loyalty and support of past students. It seems well worth the effort to consider alternative solutions to the classroom space challenge. The back room is a treasure, a reminder of an individual's importance to the whole.That is one of the most vital lessons a school can provide.