Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Sammi Alexander, a fourth-grade student at Genoa Elementary, has been chosen to have her artwork displayed for the month of April as part of the fifth-annual Visual and Performing Arts Exhibition inside the Genoa Branch Library.
The North Point Educational Service Center (NPESC), which is the organization that sponsors the exhibition, will host a meet-the-artist event for Sammi at the library on April 3 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Stephanie Combs, who is Sammi’s art teacher at Genoa Elementary, will be on hand along with her principal and officials from the NPESC among others. After the event, her artwork will be featured in the main library for the duration of the month.
This is the first year that the Genoa Branch Library has hosted the event, and branch manager Meghan Parker is excited to show off Sammi’s art work.
“We'll have some balloons and a reception area with water, sweets and goodies for family and friends to enjoy and just, you know, soak up all her artwork,” she said.
Parker is also happy because the event helps to further build an important relationship, as well as the rapport, between the elementary school and the library.
As a child, Sammi loved playing with Play-Doh and coloring, and her passion for creativity grew from there. When she’s not drawing, painting or designing, she stays busy playing piano, enjoying various sports and spending time with her favorite furry friends – cats.
Sammi’s passion for art comes from the world around her. She said she finds inspiration in everyday signs and other art work. One of her favorite artists is Leonardo da Vinci, and she dreams of one day displaying her own art in Paris, right next to the Mona Lisa.
When she gets older, Sammi hopes to become a fashion designer and run her own boutique, or maybe even do something that combines design and mathematics.
Sammi’s mother, Maely, is a teacher at Woodmore Elementary, and Parker was excited to see Sammi selected considering the mother-daughter duo are frequent patrons of the library. In fact, the NPESC typically selects the art work of 5-10 students, but Sammi had the honor of being the lone student honored this year.
“They are just great patrons here,” Parker said. “They have been coming in for years. They come to a lot of our programs, and they each come in and check out books. So when we found out that Sammi was the chosen one, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we know her.’”
Parker said she has gotten a peek at some of Sammi’s work, and one that stood out was a Leaning Tower of Pisa made out of orange juice bottle caps. Overall, she believes there will be five to seven pieces of art work on display.
“It’s very interesting,” she said. “She’s very creative. I know she's going to have some 3D pieces and some 2D pieces.”
This is the second time a Genoa student has been chosen for this honor as Gia Carroll was selected a couple years ago. Parker said that Carroll is also very talented, and they actually call her an honorary employee at the library because of how often she comes in.
“Gia comes here quite often with her grandma, and we put her to work,” Parker said. “She comes in and hangs out in the office with us. We did a community art puzzle, and Gia featured probably about five different puzzle pieces, and they were amazing. She's just, she's very talented.”
