PORTSMOUTH— At the end of the 2022-23 school year, South Central Ohio Educational Service Center’s Gifted Services Dept. Coordinator, Sharee Price, distributed blank coffee cup sleeves to local high school students and their teachers asking them to create eye-catching designs on them.

“I was hoping to collect enough of the handcrafted coffee sleeves to be able to put them out in local coffee shops as a way of sharing the students’ and teachers’ artistic talents with the community” explained Price. “We need to collect more of them to have enough to go around, so we’re going to continue to work on the project again this school year and might even look at mass producing a few of the designs.”

Art On Your Sleeve is a project intended to showcase original designs created by local high school art students and their teachers as a way of sharing their hearts and their art with the community.

During the summer, Price shared her vision with staff at the Scioto County Public Library and was invited to display some of the sleeves at the Portsmouth Library.

“I always get excited anytime Sharee Price reaches out about a new display to feature at the library,” Scioto County Public Library’s Katie Williams said. “We love showcasing local artists and being a hub for the community. This beautiful display of coffee sleeves matches perfectly with our building full of books!”

The exhibit is titled “Art On Your Sleeve” and will be on display through mid-October.

“We’re appreciative of Market Street Café for donating the coffee cups and lids that were used for this display,” said Price, “and would like to thank Lofts Coffee Company & Roastery in Portsmouth as well as Sarah’s Café and Bakery in Lucasville for their support of the project.”

The project continues to grow, as SOMC has invited the students and their teachers to create some sleeves specifically for their Light It Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign this October. They will be selecting designs to mass produce for some of their events.

“Giving students the opportunity to share their artistic talents with the community is important to me because I believe it helps students understand that their artwork has value and meaning to others,” Price said. “As a former high school art teacher, I saw first-hand how much it meant to students when they realized that their artistic talents provided an avenue for them to give something of themselves to others or to contribute to a collective project for the good of others. This project isn’t so much about individual artists; it’s more about a group of artists coming together for a common goal, and in this case that goal is to give back to their community. The title “Art On Your Sleeve” is, of course, a play on words related to the saying about wearing your heart on your sleeve and if you’re wearing your heart on your sleeve it means that you are openly showing your feelings or emotions rather than keeping them hidden…this project is just one way of the giving the students the opportunity to share a part of themselves with their community.”

Reach Joseph Pratt at (740) 353-3101, by email at [email protected], © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved.