NJC student art exhibit draws Sterling community with live demonstrations

Will Ross watched Northeastern Junior College turn E.S. French Hall into a working studio Thursday as the school opened its Student Art Exhibit with live demonstrations and a chance for Sterling residents to see stained glass, painting, drawing and ceramics up close. The reception gave visitors more than finished work on the wall. It let them see the techniques behind it.

That matters in Sterling, where NJC is one of the most visible public institutions and a major community gathering place at 100 College Avenue. Founded in 1941, the college reports 2,187 students and 124 programs, and it says its campus life includes student housing, athletics and performing arts. A student art reception fits that broader role, bringing families, faculty, prospective students and neighbors onto campus for an event that is both cultural and civic.

The exhibit is on view in the Peter L. Youngers Fine Arts Gallery, which sits inside E.S. French Hall and hosts rotating shows from September through May. The gallery is free to visit on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., making the show one of the few public arts stops in town that does not require a ticket or appointment. The annual student show runs through May 6, with a closing reception scheduled for Thursday, May 5, from 5 to 7 p.m.

The college’s art curriculum gives that exhibit a practical foundation. Its first-year sequence focuses on methods, materials and techniques, framing student work as more than decoration and pushing students to build skill across media. That approach was on display in the mix of work shown Thursday, where the range of media suggested a program that is still broad enough to support both technical training and creative experimentation.

NJC has also built a track record for keeping visual arts visible on campus. A 2022 student show featured painting and stained glass, and Ross said then that the painting room had filled again after pandemic-era online instruction. Celeste Delgado-Pelton said at the time that the college fought hard to keep performing and visual arts available during COVID-19 restrictions so students could create in whatever medium they were passionate about.

That continuity is reflected in NJC’s Art Club, which lists Delgado-Pelton as the contact person. For Logan County, the exhibit was not just a campus display. It was another reminder that the college helps shape Sterling’s public life as well as its workforce pipeline.