The Longwood Center for the Visual Arts is proud to present Start with Art, Learn for Life, the Annual Area Youth Art Exhibition. This year's display consists of 570 works of art by students in grades K-12 from public and private schools within a nine-county region. Art teachers contributed their students' works from public, private, and home schools in the counties of Amelia, Appomattox, Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Nottoway, Powhatan, and Prince Edward. On Sunday, March 27, the LCVA will host an opening reception from 2 – 4 p.m. Free and open to the public, the reception and exhibition are made possible by generous support from the Walter Payne Foundation. The works will remain on view through April 30 in the Lower Level Gallery at LCVA.

The Main Street Gallery will display Up Close with Chuck Close, an installation inspired by the works of artist Chuck Close. Students from Prince Edward County Elementary School have filled the LCVA's front window with faces created in Close's style. The installation will include portraits of famous artists and icons as well as recreations of some of Chuck Close's famous works. PECES art teachers Carol Edmonson and Joy Utzinger have coordinated the work of the 1,015 student-artists whose works are represented.

This is the eleventh year LCVA has sponsored the Annual Area Youth Art Exhibition. The following teachers have assisted by preparing and submitting their students' work for the 2011 exhibition: Jennifer Abruzzo (Buckingham County High School), Jennifer Baker (Five-County Home School), Gayle E. Bromer (Buckingham County Middle School), Loretta Cencia (Prince Edward County High School), Kathryn Clarke (Bacon-District Elementary School, J. Murray Jeffress Elementary School, & Phenix Elementary School), Kim Dalton (Pocahontas Middle School), Laura Dedmond, Longwood '08 (Dillwyn Elementary School & Gold Hill Elementary School), Jane Dougherty (Amelia County Middle School), Carol Edmonson '82 (Prince Edward County Elementary School), Jessi Fleisher '04 (Lunenburg Middle School), Deborah Wilkinson Ford '76 (Amelia County High School), Vicki Fulcher (New Life Christian Academy), Frank Hailey III (Randolph-Henry High School), Patricia Herring '80 (Nottoway County Middle School), Renee Hounsell (Appomattox Middle School), Allison Jones (Kenston Forest School), Ronda Jones '78 (Cumberland County Middle School), Keri Lindsey '05 (Burkeville Elementary School & Crewe Primary School), Rose Mezzatesta (Buckingham Primary School & Dillwyn Primary School), Marley Midkiff (Nottoway Intermediate School), Alyson G. Napier (Nottoway County High School), Kathryn Orth (Prince Edward County High School), Emily Overstreet '06 (Cumberland County Elementary School), Denise Penick '73 (Fuqua Lower School, Fuqua Middle School, & Fuqua Upper School), Bettye Pope (Amelia County Elementary School), Connie Queensberry '90 (Central Middle School), Debbie Quinn '92 (Blackstone Primary School), Beth Reynolds '94 (Appomattox Middle School & Appomattox County High School), Betsy Skelton (Five-County Home School), Janice Stanley '92 (Cumberland County High School), Carla Terry '09 (Amelia County Middle School), Joy Utzinger (Prince Edward County Elementary School), Lindsay Wheeler '08 (Eureka Elementary School), Maggie Whorley '73 (Appomattox Elementary School), and Valerie York (Appomattox Primary School & Appomattox Middle School).

The LCVA is located at 129 North Main Street in Farmville. In preparation for our spring exhibitions, the galleries are closed until March 27. Offices remain open 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. For additional information on this or other programs, call 434-395-2206.