On Saturday, June 21, artists from around the panhandle showcased their talent for the Pampa Art Festival at the Community Christian School.
For the last four years, local artist, Kevin Costley, has put together the Pampa Art Festival to not only help provide a platform for these artists to display their beautiful creations, but to also raise money for certain organizations.
“The local artists didn’t really have anything in this area,” Kevin said. “Clarendon used to do a show a couple of years back and we would migrate to Clarendon to do the show and when they stopped doing it, we had nowhere else to display our work and let other people see it. So we decided to do our own here in Pampa.”
The pieces showcased ranged from metal welds and glass etching to the many different styles of painting such as acrylic, watercolor and oil.
Kevin also said that many of the artists that meet up at the Senior Center used to be part of the Pampa Fire Arts Club, and when the club disbanded, many of its members who still wanted to be a part of the art scene began to regularly meet at the Senior Center and has since grown. Kevin invites anyone who would like to come by and join in are more than welcome to do so.
“There’s a group of us artists that meet down at the Senior Citizens Center on Tuesday of each week and we get together and teach each other different techniques and things like that. I suggested to them an art show and we’ll call it the Pampa Art Festival and we’ll pick an organization or ministry that we want to support and collect donations and we’ll donate about 10% of our sales to that organization.”
For the last three years, the Pampa Art Festival had donated their proceeds to TCE Missions International in South Africa, many of the missionaries being from Pampa that have been in South Africa for over ten years.
This year, they decided to donate to the Community Christian School, so artists donated a piece of their artwork that was bid on during the silent auction.
The Community Christian School holds a special place in Kevin and his wife, Marcie’s, hearts, and they feel that it’s important that the citizens of Pampa know that CCS is a viable option for education.
“That’s what I think the key is when you’re looking at the educational system in Pampa, there are options,” Marcie said. “There’s not one right and one wrong, and I think we all need to have that mindset that no one is against another. There are so many different personalities and learning styles for a child, so it’s good to have options in their education. It’s not just a one size fits all.”
“The focus on Christ and helping your child be a good citizen, too, is just as important, because when they go out into this world, they’re going to need that,” Kevin added. “I see the difference in my kid just in him being a good citizen, understanding who Christ is, his kindness and knowing how to treat other people. It’s different than what you get in a larger environment with so many people. You can’t get to every child, you can’t give them that individual attention, but you can in a smaller school like this.”
For more information about Community Christian School, give them a call at 806-665-3393 or visit them at 1633 N. Nelson.
