Battle Lake Students Showcase Art in First School Year Gallery Exhibit

Battle Lake art teacher Amanda Callahan has pulled together work from kindergartners through seniors for a public gallery show that marks something the district has never done before: a full school year with art offered as a regular class.

The exhibit, featuring student work from grades K through 12, opens April 11 at the Art of the Lakes Gallery in Battle Lake and runs through April 20. Weekend hours are Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m., giving families multiple opportunities to view the show during its 10-day run.

Callahan curated the selections across grade levels, and the show is framed by Art of the Lakes as both a community-school partnership and a public affirmation that visual arts instruction is now a sustained part of the local curriculum, not a one-time offering. That distinction gives the exhibit weight beyond a typical student showcase: it functions as a report card on what Battle Lake built this year.

A free closing reception on Monday, April 20, from 3 to 5:30 p.m. will give families and neighbors a chance to meet the student artists and mark the occasion together. The timing, at the end of the school day on the exhibit's final afternoon, is designed to pull in parents and community members without requiring a separate weekend trip.

Art of the Lakes announced the exhibit in its April newsletter alongside adult spring classes planned for May and June and a Designer Cooler and Purse Bingo fundraiser set for May 8. The student show sits at the center of a broader spring schedule the organization uses to keep the gallery and its programs visible to Battle Lake year-round.

For students who spent this year learning art as a regular subject for the first time, the gallery at Art of the Lakes provides something a classroom assignment cannot: a real audience and a public wall.