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Arts & Entertainment

Students, Teachers Take Part In Art Show

MOsaics offers entertainment, art on Main Street Sept. 16-18.

The 17th annual Missouri Festival for the Arts, also known as MOsaics, will feature 110 artists displaying and selling their work, live entertainment and arts activities for children.

The free event runs from 4 to 9 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday on Main Street in St. Charles. Artists from 18 states as well as across the St. Louis region will present work in 18 different mediums, including art to wear, clay, drawing, glass, jewelry, metalwork, mixed media, painting, pastels, photography, print making, sculpture and wood.

Entertainers taking part in the event include the Blanchette Trio, Lewis and Clark Fife and Drum Corps, Mark Biehl Acuity Soundworks, the Original Boneheads and the Poor People of Paris. Performing in the Children's Village will be the Frilly and Miller Show and Circus Kaput's magic, juggling and circus shows.

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The MOsaics Art Festival Association was established in 1992 to promote the arts. One way the group does that is through the annual Mentor Me program. 

Area schools will display artwork from students and art teachers at the , 520 N. Main Center, St. Charles. The exhibit runs from Sept. 16 through Oct. 23.

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Diane Papageorge, art teacher at Lewis and Clark Elementary School in St. Peters, has been involved in the program since the beginning. "I was intrigued by the idea you could show your work and the students work at the same time," she said. "I thought that was brilliant."

Since the school year is just a few weeks old, Papageorge chooses her student artists for the show from work done the previous school year. "I had to choose from 2,000 pieces, which is very hard to do, I might add," she said.

She settled on Picasso-influenced portraits by three students -- fifth graders Adri Bereuter, Kaitlyn Colaw and Stevie Greer.

 "I just like to do it," Adri said of painting. "I like to be creative and stuff with my own pieces."

She was surprised to learn her work was chosen for the festival. "I was scared at first it would not turn out good."

Stevie also wasn't expecting her piece to be displayed in an art show. "I was very surprised," she said. "It's fun to do but I consider it a past-time. I was hoping to get it right and at least make it look good."

"Doing abstract work is not easy for these kids," Papageorge said. "They want a face to look like a face."

Papageorge is in her 31st year as an art teacher. In addition to having her work displayed as part of the Mentor Me program, her work can also be seen in the Artists as Teachers, Teachers as Artists exhibit at the Lillian Yahn Gallery, 7443 Village Center Drive, O'Fallon. The show runs through Sept. 25.

"I like the idea that you're a working artist," Papageorge said. "I want art teachers to walk the walk, if you will. When you make your own art you have a better idea how to teach it.

"Sometimes when I'm demonstrating something my students will say, 'You draw really good' and I say, 'What do you think -- they picked me up in the mall?'"

For more information about MOsaics visit www.stcharlesmosaics.org.

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