LANSDALE- Paint strokes, computer clicks, and camera shutters return once again as North Penn High School’s Art Department had its virtual art show, showcasing 50 pieces of work over 50 days. The Inspire 50 works in 50 days Virtual Art Show ended last Friday, and voting began earlier this week, yet the art show was something initially meant for just last school year. The success last year trickled into this year, and the art teachers decided to bring it back.

“The original plan was to go one year and do this in the virtual environment, but we found that the positive results were worth trying again, and it’s grown this year. We decided to bring it back this year because it is a great platform to showcase work to students in the building and reach the students who aren’t in art classes. In our voting so far, we already exceeded all of last year,” Art Department Chair and Computer Animation teacher Michael Werner said.

The art show was created so that North Penn students could share their artwork with people beyond their K-Pod and J-Pod peers, reaching a community-wide audience. Their goal was to, as its name states, inspire.

“Last year in our virtual-hybrid world, some of the things we were concerned about were students not having the opportunity to see each other’s work, not being inspired by someone else, and not being able to inspire someone else. When we are in the classroom, you can walk around the room and see your classmates’ work and be inspired by that, but in the virtual world, it was hard for students to work and interact with other pieces of art,” Werner said. “We want to bring the artwork to everyone and continue to lift each other up through the artwork.”

Inspiration in art often comes from the viewers’ own interpretation of the piece. These ideas transcend beyond the art classes and percolate the hallways of North Penn, projecting on screens across the high school. Werner hopes it can play out similarly to how art classes transpire.

“It’s something we see in the art class all the time– where someone comes up with a new, creative idea that helps plant the seed in the classmate sitting next to or across from them. It inspires them to do something better, innovative, and outside of the box. That’s something we’re always challenging our students to do: to create artwork that inspires classmates and create a domino effect of inspiration, which now becomes even more possible with the art being displayed throughout the school,” Werner said. 

Werner also hopes the art students at North Penn take this as a moment to step back, look at what they’ve accomplished, and move forward knowing that their work is something they can take pride in. 

“We want to celebrate their successes and creativity. One of the things that we find at our end-of-the-year art show is that the feedback students receive is incredible. This is a chance for students at the halfway of the school year to say ‘Look at the work that I’ve done,’ and energize themselves for the second half of the school year,” Werner said. 

He also hopes that the rest of North Penn- the non-art students, faculty, and community overall- can view the art and have certain takeaways on life and the world. With voting available to anyone, it creates room for people to view the art pieces with the same level of creativity the pieces were made.  

“The big thing with voting is that it challenges all students, staff members – really everyone – to look at the artwork and look at life through the eyes of someone else and to challenge their perspectives on the world. You don’t have to be in the art department to get a benefit out of it. If you look at it, we have 2D, 3D, year one courses, year three courses, technology. There’s a little bit of everything, and it gives you an opportunity to find something that speaks to you,” Werner said. 

Voting ends on Friday, February 4th at 12:00 pm. 

To view the art, click the link here: Inspire 2022 50 works in 50 days Art Show

To cast your vote, click the link here: Inspire 2022 Vote Form