Garden art sale to aid school

A Davis County artist is teaming up with a local elementary school to help raise money for its young artists.

Rose Brontmire will host a garden art show and sale at her Syracuse home, 2397 S. 500 West, tonight from 7 to 9 and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. to help raise money for the arts program at Cook Elementary School.

Brontmire said at least 10 percent of the show's proceeds will go toward the school's art program. "The money will go towards their arts grants," she said. "They are trying to put more arts into the school, and so they have a grant for the arts, and that's what we are working on."

Brontmire, who taught in the Davis County School District for 25 years before retiring, said she knows how important the arts are for students. "When I taught, I tried to incorporate a lot of art into the curriculum because I found it helped the kids in all other areas," she said. "It actually made them smarter."

Brontmire said she chose to help Cook Elementary School because she feels it has a need and it's in her hometown.

The garden art show and sale will feature Brontmire's work, which she creates with a variety of media including watercolor, collage, pastel and mixed media.

Brontmire said that not only should people come to the show because it's a fund-raiser, but also because it will be held in a unique setting.

"I have a very unique house, and it's going to be a garden show, and so a lot of the art will be on easels in the yard," she said. "(People) will be able to walk through my flower garden, they will go downstairs to where I teach my students and also to my barn studio."

Brontmire currently teaches open studio classes at Caleidoscopes Art Studio in her home. Her work has been displayed in galleries, private collections and exhibits along the Wasatch Front as well as being featured on the 2006 Community Nursing Services Calendar.

Her collection of pieces dedicated to the history of Syracuse was on display during Syracuse Heritage Days in June. The collection is titled, "A Stop in Tyme" and will be part of the garden show and sale.

"I am trying to paint Syracuse the way it used to be before all the building has taken place," Brontmire said. "The people who have lived here a long time, it will celebrate them as well as the people who have moved here, it will help them know how Syracuse was."

Brontmire said she has been focusing on the Syracuse area because that's where she lives and she is trying to help her community.

The Syracuse artist currently serves as president of the Syracuse Guild for Visual Art and vice president of the Syracuse Arts Council. For more information on the July show, contact Brontmire at 825-1729 or RBrontmire@msn.com.

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E-mail: nclemens@desnews.com