Perkins Center for the Arts presents the fourth annual Veterans and Active-Duty Military Exhibition, on display through Monday, Dec. 14. This exhibition is an open invitation to not only Perkins’ active Veterans students, but also to active duty and veteran community members, to submit artwork for display in Perkins’ Moorestown gallery. Perkins’ Veterans programs have grown from painting and drawing to including glass programs in Collingswood, and new visual and performing arts programs in its Evesham locations.
“The veterans class does two main things,” said Art Smith, instructor of Perkins’ free veterans drawing and painting class. “It gives veterans an opportunity to create artwork. Many of them haven’t made anything artistic since high school or elementary school. It also gives a community to men and women who share the experience of being in the military, and that creates a positive, affirming, safe place to make artwork, be critiqued and be encouraged to get better. They’ve served in different branches and different theaters of operation, and to see them all come together in one place is an amazing experience.”
The Veterans and Active-Duty Military Exhibition is part of Perkins’ year-round commitment to veterans and military families. It went from 47 entries in the first year to 96 last year. Across its first three years, it has drawn 233 entries. Artists have shown painting, photography, ceramics, sculpture and fine woodworking. Some work speaks directly to military service, but much of it reflects the artists’ lives and interests beyond it. For Army Veteran Howard Arbittier, the drawing and painting class brings its students together with a purpose.
“Everyone in the class is from a different part of the military: Air Force, Army (and) Navy,” Arbittier said, “And yet, in the class we’re all together, showing different ways of doing art.. It’s helped me feel more complete, doing types of art I never thought I would do.”
The Veterans and Active-Duty Military Exhibition is a great opportunity for people to buy original art made from veterans, Smith emphasized. For Arbittier, Perkins has done wonders for the arts community with all the activities and programs that it offers throughout the year.
“The people that are here have been in different parts of the military and have accomplished a lot of things through the military, but getting together in a class like this, it has become more of a friendship-family oriented type class,” Arbittier said. “Not only do you have the art, but (it’s also) personable (with) people getting together.”
Perkins supports veterans, active-duty military and their dependents through free individual or family memberships. Memberships include access to free veteran’s classes in Moorestown, Collingswood or Evesham, and discounts on other classes and workshops, as well as opportunities to exhibit throughout the year.
“The neat thing about Art and the class is that we try different things,” said Air Force Veteran Dennis Phillips. “It’s very common to take a class and you would do – let’s say – a still-life, and you would work eight weeks doing that still-life. Art tries different things each week, and that’s part of the success of the class, and it speaks well to him as a teacher to have us do many different things.”
The public is invited to a free opening reception for the Veterans and Active-Duty Military Exhibition at the Moorestown gallery on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 2 to 5 p.m. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Art Smith (center), instructor of Perkins’ veterans drawing and painting class, with his students on Oct. 27.
