Melody Epperson: She Did and We Will -100 Years and Counting

Jeffco Teacher Solo Exhibition - Melody Epperson

She Did and We Will -100 Years and Counting

Teachers who guide and inspire their students are an important part of the Jeffco High School Art Exhibition, and many teachers are artists themselves. The Jeffco Teacher Solo Exhibition highlights one such teacher and artist, Melody Epperson. Epperson taught in Jefferson County for 30 years and attended Jeffco schools K-12^th grade. She did the majority of her time at Jeffco Open School (29 years of teaching and 7 years as a student). While at Lakewood High School she was included in the Jeffco High School Art exhibition at the Arvada Center.

This exhibition celebrates the 100-year anniversary of the passage of the 19^th Amendment. It features encaustic paintings and sculptural pieces of women suffragists, and address issues of women’s emancipation. There is also an audio experience that includes the stories of these historic women read by local Colorado women. The women reading these biographies add their own stories, thus bringing women’s rights into a contemporary conversation.

Events

Opening Reception: Friday, April 10, 6-9 p.m. Free and Open to the Public

Artist Talk and Unsung Heroines Performance*: Friday, April 10 at 5:30 p.m.

“Unsung Heroines” is one-woman cantastoria celebrated the story of women’s rights beginning with the suffragists. Cantastoria comes from the Italian word song-singer. In cantastoria a story is told through song and often includes a visual map to help with the storytelling.

About the Jeffco Schools Foundation High School Art Exhibition

For 49 years the Jeffco Schools Foundation High School Art Exhibition has encouraged and supported tomorrow’s artists from the Jefferson County school district, many of whom go on to thrive as professional artists and art teachers themselves. For over four decades, the Jeffco Public Schools and the Arvada Center have partnered in presenting this popular and inspiring student art exhibition that features more than 400 works from 23 Jeffco high schools. The always-impressive collection of student art, exhibited in the Arvada Center’s 6,000 square foot Main Gallery, includes works in traditional disciplines as well as pieces created using new technologies. There is no other high school exhibition like it in the region with the same caliber, diversity, and quality of art.