AOY Art Center to Host 4th Annual Show of Works by Pennsbury Art Majors

The AOY Art Center, a Pennsbury Partner, will host the fourth annu­al gallery show of adju­di­cat­ed Pennsbury stu­dent work on two week­ends in ear­ly 2020. As in past years, this show­case of up-and-coming tal­ent will be juried by mem­bers of the AOY Art Center and prizes will be award­ed. First prize is $500, with a second-place prize of $300, and $200 for third-place hon­ors. Three $50 gift cer­tifi­cates from Jerry’s Artarama will also be award­ed as Honorable Mentions.

A wide vari­ety of stu­dent work in many dif­fer­ent media will be exhib­it­ed, includ­ing paint­ings, draw­ings, sculp­ture, and dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy. The works will be adju­di­cat­ed and select­ed for the AOY exhi­bi­tion dur­ing the Pennsbury High School Art Majors Show at PHS East on the evening of January 9^th.

The AOY Art Center is locat­ed on Patterson Farm at 949 Mirror Lake Road in Lower Makefield Township. The pub­lic is invit­ed to an open­ing recep­tion at the cen­ter on Friday, January 24^th from 6:00–8:00 p.m., and the show will con­tin­ue that Saturday and Sunday, January 25–26^th, and the fol­low­ing week­end, February 1^st-2^nd. Gallery hours on the week­ends are 12:00–5:00 p.m.

The AOY jurors this year will be estab­lished artists, Donna Lynn Sheehan and Connie Dierks (see biogra­phies includ­ed below). The award funds stem from two sources: a new dona­tion made by an anony­mous AOY mem­ber in hon­or of the out­stand­ing Art pro­gram at Pennsbury High School in the hopes of inspir­ing these new artists and their fam­i­lies; and a dona­tion made by AOY mem­ber, Fran Leyenberger, in mem­o­ry of her hus­band, Chris.

Ruth Anne Schultz, Pennsbury’s K‑12 Art Curriculum Coordinator, said, “On behalf of the Art Department, I’d like to say that this part­ner­ship with the AOY Art Center is a win-win for both the stu­dents of Pennsbury and the com­mu­ni­ty. We appre­ci­ate all the extra effort that AOY is con­tribut­ing to host this stu­dent show and we are excit­ed this will pro­vide more com­mu­ni­ty expo­sure for the work of our stu­dents and their teachers.” 

The pur­pose of the AOY Art Center is to pur­sue art edu­ca­tion for the com­mu­ni­ty. For more infor­ma­tion about the cen­ter or to request pri­vate access to the show, vis­it www.artistsofyardley.org or call Bette Sovinee 215–493-1205.

The mis­sion of the Pennsbury Partners Program is to estab­lish and sus­tain col­lab­o­ra­tive part­ner­ships between the School District and the community-at-large to enrich edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for all stu­dents. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.pennsburysd.org >Departments>Pennsbury Partners Program or call 215–428-4178.       

 About the Jurors

Connie Dierks

Connie Dierks has been a res­i­dent of Bucks County for 28 years. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from the University of Virginia. Connie retired from a graph­ic design career in 2012, giv­ing her more time to paint and expand her hori­zons in the art com­mu­ni­ty. She con­tin­ues to be very suc­cess­ful in the Fine Art world and active­ly par­tic­i­pates in many juried and non-juried shows through­out the year. Her works show her fas­ci­na­tion with col­or, reflec­tion, light, and shad­ow. Connie is a mem­ber of Artists of Yardley, Artsbridge, New Hope Art League, Garden State Watercolor Society, and Willingboro Art Alliance. https://conniedierksfineart.artspan.com/home

Donna Lynn Sheehan 

Donna is a grad­u­ate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, with two degrees focused in gen­er­al illus­tra­tion and graph­ic design. In her ear­ly career as a graph­ic design­er, Donna designed mar­ket­ing mate­ri­als for malls around the coun­try while work­ing at Pembrook Management on Long Island, New York. With a move to Yardley in 1993 and tak­ing time to raise her chil­dren, Donna tran­si­tioned to a fine arts career with com­mis­sions to paint hang­ing murals for the St. John the Evangelist Community Center and St. John Evangelist rec­to­ry. Versed in a wide vari­ety of media, she enjoys oil paint­ing using direct and indi­rect meth­ods, choos­ing sub­jects from life and her own pho­tog­ra­phy. Donna shows her work in juried and local shows and con­tin­u­ous­ly grows and explores as an artist, draw­ing inspi­ra­tion from teach­ing stu­dents from her in-home Yardley stu­dio and at AOY Art Center in beau­ti­ful Bucks County. @DonnaLynnStudio