This week, artists and visitors attended a reception for the annual High School Art Stars exhibit, which runs through May 15. High School Art Stars features artwork by students from Marshall, Minneota, and Russell-Tyler-Ruthton High Schools.

“I love that these kids’ stuff is getting put out there,” said Soren Radarys, who was visiting the gallery Wednesday evening.

Radarys said it was also good to see support for art education at local schools.

The show is the first one to be held in MAFAC’s new gallery space on the second floor of Marshall City Hall. People will be able to come see the artworks during regular hours at City Hall, said MAFAC president Carol Purrington.

Photo by Deb Gau RTR High School student Norah Gile talked about how parts of her "reverse perspective" artwork fit together to create an optical illusion.

Some of the students whose artwork was on display visited this week’s reception. Marshall High School student Ayden Keen had art in the show including paintings. One of his artworks was a painting exercise that also incorporated a photo.

“You could take any picture, and then you cut a circle out of it,” Keen said.

Students then used acrylic paint to fill in the missing part of their chosen images. Keen chose a photo of a bag filled with cherries.

“I thought it would be a challenge, because of all the different shapes. And the colors really popped out,” he said.

“It is pretty cool,” Keen said of being part of the art show.

Photo by Deb Gau Visitors came to see artwork by Marshall, Minneota and Russell-Tyler-Ruthton High School students, at the ongoing High School Art Stars exhibit at Marshall City Hall.

Norah Gile was one of the RTR students whose artwork is part of the show. She and a few other students had a display of “reverse perspective” drawings. Gile explained that students started out by drawing flat images, that could fit together to show the perspective of a street running away into the distance. Students then put the pieces of their drawings together to form the sides of a pyramid.

“We created an optical illusion, by having it reaching out to you,” Gile said. It was a challenge to put all the parts of the illusion together, she said. “Everything had to line up exactly.”

MAFAC’s new gallery area in City Hall also got some positive comments from visitors this week. Earlier this spring, the organization moved out of its old space on Third Street, and into an office and a common area on the second floor of City Hall. The common area already had features like seating, and Purrington said MAFAC added a display system for hanging art on the walls.

“We’ve had a lot of people coming up that are curious,” Purrington said. “It’s just a very inviting space.”

Purrington said moving to City Hall actually means the MAFAC gallery will be open more, as the area would be open to the public during regular business hours, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Photo by Deb Gau Sculptures in the art show ranged from the realistic to the fantastic, like this colorful creature.

The High School Art Stars exhibit will run through May 15 at City Hall.

Purrington also encouraged area residents to attend the final event of MAFAC’s current concert series, a performance by musical group Young Original. The concert will be 7 p.m. on April 26, at the Schwan Community Center for the Performing Arts in Marshall. Purrington said tickets for the concert will be available at the MAFAC gallery and at the Marshall Hy-Vee.

Photo by Deb Gau Pages from an old book took on the shape of a dragon, in a sculpture in the Art Stars exhibit.

Photo by Deb Gau Minneota High School student Naima Content's artwork of a tiger was one of the items on display in the show.

Photo by Deb Gau One display in the art show was made up of small images, like photos of places around the world.

Photo by Deb Gau An ink drawing by Marshall High School student Blessing Doh is one of the artworks on display in the show.