SALISBURY — Exposing students to local art is what North Hills Christian School art instructor Michelle Allen wants to do through field trips and artists making guest appearances at the school.

She was able to do just that recently as the middle and high school art students went for a visit Feb. 27 and 28, respectively, to tour WaterWorks Visual Arts Center on East Liberty Street and participate in a hands-on art workshop in the morning and a trip to West Rowan Home and Garden, now Elsie’s, in Mount Ulla during the afternoon.

In previous years, Allen said that “field trips have never been something I got to organize and take students on because I have always done elementary in my 25 years of teaching, meaning I have taught all students usually around 600. The smaller groups allowed me to do so. My favorite collaboration is to expose our kids to art right in our hometown.”

Both of these recent trips offered the students the opportunity to learn about different kinds of art. At the first stop, they were led by Kathleen Bergeron, who served as docent for the walking tour through the gallery.

The students participated in what is called an art stops program, said Anne Scott Clement, executive director of Waterworks. It includes “a docent-led gallery tour with a companion inspired hands-on activity in the studio.” Half of the students remained for a tour while the other half went upstairs for the workshop and then they swapped, allowing them to participate in both.

Bergeron began the tour introducing the three artists and their exhibits after which she led them to the gallery and encouraged them to study the paintings of artist James Keul, whose work takes on environmental issues. Once they had the chance to look and study them, they discussed them as Bergeron gave the students the chance to share what they thought the artist was saying through his works.

She did remind them that “when you are looking at a piece of art, one thing you have to realize, you are looking at it from the artist’s perspective.”

They then moved to the next gallery to see the photography of Giordano Angeletti.

This exhibit, titled “Imaginary Views,” she said, is inspired by architecture and landscape. Bergeron pointed out that he took miniature elements and put them in a full-scale environment.

The final exhibit consisted of various sculptures by Paula Smith. While she has multiple works on display, the focus was on her torso exhibit, which is titled “Sweet Sixteen.”

Clement said that the torsos were inspired by her daughter’s My Size Barbie. “She actually cast the torsos from the life size Barbie doll.”

And while the forms may appear all the same, what makes them different are the “surface treatment and the contained objects” inside each torso, Smith said in a paper describing her exhibit, telling that “girls are not cookie cut outs. They are all individuals.”

Each piece tells a story, Clement said, and “each torso has a title and speaks to its meaning” and can often take on different levels of meaning.

“All three of these people really know their art, they really know their craft,” Bergeron said. “They’ve worked years at it.”

After the final exhibit was viewed and discussed, she had them take a “test” which she said was more like a scavenger hunt. After grabbing their clipboards, they were off and searching for the answers.

When asked what she liked or learned, Jasmine Sale, a junior, said she liked the Sweet Sixteen exhibit “because it shows a lot of what girls struggle with and deal with through our real world and age.

She mentioned one of the torsos on display in particular that contained a mirror telling, that to her, “it shows we look in the mirror so much because we want to look perfect for somebody outside, somebody at school and then the measurements, when we go prom dress shopping, we have to get the right measurements,” having to either size up or down. “And that can hurt the soul, hurt your feelings because you don’t look like other girls, you aren’t the same measurement as other girls.”

Sophomore Devin Reid Copley said he had seen a lot through the school year and visited a few different galleries, but “this would have to be one of the most diverse ones I have ever been to, and I think it really helps change your perspective about how God can help you express yourself through it.”

While the tour for one group was taking place, Jackie Black, education director at the art center, was leading the other students in a workshop as they drew their own version of Smith’s torso sculptures.

Black said that she gave the students the option to draw a male or female torso and it could be either their own or a character they created.

And just like the sculptures in the exhibit, their drawings were to include a space “for something special, something they want to share, something they want people to know, an idea, an ideal, a message for society, or just something personal to them, and so that’s what they put in their container,” said Black.

Students were given the option to add color to their drawings with either colored pencils or markers or leave them as pencil drawings, she added.

“They are very nice delicate pencil drawings,” Black said, “and there’s a nice variety of their responses because I told them the torso is the beginning, it’s the start. They begin there to take the idea and make it their own.”

Two of the students, both freshmen, shared what their drawings meant to them as they worked on completing their torso sketches.

For Livi Newhouse, a freshman, she said that this project is “very self-expressing and it puts meaning, and other people can express the way they want to and it gives you a way to let your emotions out in a creative way.”

Corina Bivin, also a freshman, said while the project is supposed to be mainly about Barbie, an image of perfection, “I decided to do something that reflects realistic proportions and realistic in how it really is.”

She grew up with Barbies and said, “looking at them and then looking at myself, it’s like ‘oh should I look like that?’ probably, but I never did. I think we should all learn to appreciate who we are.”

A part of the field trip included lunch provided by the local Hot Dog Shack, at the Bell Tower Green after which they took the opportunity to have a picture made in front of Salisbury’s historic wall mural before making their way to Elsie’s in Mount Ulla. The cost of this project was sponsored by a parent, Allen shared.

While there, Elsie Bennett “shared her expertise and passion and history of barn quilt square creations and designed a barn quilt square for the school,” she said. The students helped to paint the square during their visit, and when it is completed, it will be presented to the administration.

In addition to learning about the community barn quilt and helping work on a square, they enjoyed treats and ice cream from the shop, helping to support local business, which Allen said they love to do.

The scope of this field trip “took the kids from a fine art study to a folk art study,” Allen said.

Throughout the school year, they have also been able to see and learn more as they went to Charlotte in November to see the art of glass blowing at Hot Glass Alley and then to the Museum of Illusion.

And, they were also exposed to other artwork when Eric Melton, caricaturist, and Lonnie Cooper, who works in ceramics, visited the students to share and demonstrate their expertise, Allen said.

She shared that they have also participated in several art exhibitions including one at WaterWorks and another at the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office. This exhibit, hosted by Sheriff Travis Allen, featured the work of 43 middle and high school art students. Sheriff Allen “hopes to make that one become countywide in the future.”

Allen said she has a “good number of talented artists who may perhaps pursue a career in art. It is good for them to see what’s out there to help them search for their passion.”