This drawing “City of Bridges” by Taylor Miller, a sixth-grader at Sugarcreek Elementary School, will be part of the annual Elementary School Art Show at the Butler Art Center. A reception is planned for Friday.

The Butler Art Center’s annual Elementary School Art Show will have a reception with entertainment and refreshments from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the center, 344 S. Main St.

The exhibit will then continue through March 4.

Young artists from public and private schools and cyber schools as well as home-schooled students participate each year with their drawings, paintings and 3-D objects among other artwork.

Chelsea Grubbs, who is in her second year teaching art to kindergarten through sixth graders at Chicora and Sugarcreek elementary schools, submitted 10 examples each of her fifth- and sixth-graders’ artwork for the show.

The sixth-graders’ project was a Pittsburgh bridges drawing, and the fifth graders did owl in a tree chalk drawings.

Chalk can be messy but the children like that, Grubbs said.

“The drawings turned out really good,” she said. “I had a lot of comments from other teachers about the drawings that were up in the hallways.”

Grubbs said the students chose all their own colors: “they went a little crazy with that!”

“For the tree, they chose either from the warm color palette or the cool color palette. For the owl, they were able to choose whatever they wanted to make their own personal owl,” she said.

The lesson focused on how the warm and cool colors relate to each other, Grubbs said.

“And I always like to bring in something from Pennsylvania, so we learned facts about owls,” she said.

She said she usually shows the students a finished example, then demonstrates the first couple steps.

“But then I let them do it,” she said. “I think a big thing in art is letting them make the decision about which way to go with it.

“I think the owls and bridges turned out cool because there’s something a little bit different in each one.”

On the heels of the Elementary School Art Show at the Art Center will be the All Butler County Middle School and High School Art Show, which will run from March 15 to 25, with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. March 17.

The Butler Art Center is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Admission is free.

For more information, call 724-283-6922 or visit the website at www.butlerartcenter.org.