OXNARD : High School Opens Movable Art Gallery

Battered desks and broken typewriters have been shoved back, walls erected, the floor carpeted. What was a dark, cramped storage area became the Oxnard High School Art Gallery, one of the few school galleries in the county.

The gallery, which opened Monday, is the brainchild of Ray Wood, who runs the school’s Art Department. Using $1,000 in seed money from the district, he has devoted his lunch hours to design and build the gallery.

“I took a look at the storage area next to the Art Department; it was a real eyesore,” Wood said.

“I got the idea that if I created an art gallery, especially one that could be taken down and moved to a new location if we got a new high school, maybe they would go for it. And they did,” he said of school administrators.

The gallery, which has two walls made of plexiglass panels and two of whitewashed plywood, was built in sections that are bolted together. Thus, the gallery can be disassembled and rebuilt when Oxnard High moves to a new campus in three years as planned.

The 8-foot by 30-foot gallery is large enough to handle a full-size show of 30 to 70 pieces of art, depending on their size. Paintings, drawings and photographs are hung Louvre-style, covering floor to ceiling of two walls, while sculpture and ceramics sit on shelves or on stands along the windows.

Previously, as in many high schools, artwork was displayed randomly in the library, offices and the faculty lounge.

Now, the plexiglass walls allow students to view the art as they change classes, even though the gallery will be locked most of the time for security reasons.

The opening show will display many of the contest winners, from a portrait of Chinese leader Mao Zedong in electric-green pastels, to a pen and ink lion’s head, and stark, black and white photographs of couples.

One photographer, sophomore Stephanie Sunwoo, already has won recognition. This summer, she will study at California State Summer School for the Arts at Mills College near San Francisco. She is one of 400 students chosen from several thousand applicants.

Wood said he hopes to exhibit work by professional artists whom he periodically invites to lecture or demonstrate their techniques to his art students.