Correspondent photo / Susan Wojnar Youngstown artist and SMARTS Community teacher Will Duck was on hand for a live demonstration at Friday’s Joy of SMARTS fundraiser. He is pictured here working on an as-yet untitled portrait of five Youngstown boxing champions.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Ohio One building in Youngstown was the scene of the annual Joy of SMARTS (Students Motivated by the Arts) celebration Friday.

The annual benefit is named in honor of mixed media artist Joy White, who was a lifelong member, friend and board member of SMARTS. The innovative arts school began 28 years ago and provides free classes in visual arts, music, theater and creative writing for PK -12 students.

There is an emphasis on underserved populations. The school believes that arts education improves student achievement, self-discovery and cultural literacy. Along with public programming at the downtown Ohio One building, the school plants community teaching artists in private, public and charter schools, and youth organizations during and after school.

“I have been able to see first-hand the incredible impact that the programs have on students, both here in our building and out in the community at our partner schools. Now more than ever, students need the arts, especially as funding for these programs in schools decreases,” Abbie Twyford Wilson, assistant director of SMARTS, said. “There are no auditions or prior talent required to apply to SMARTS. All students are accepted upon application, and we meet them where they are in terms of their abilities.”

The event itself had on display more than 250 pieces of donated art from local and national artists. Guests could bid on the art and an auction was held.

Youngstown native Jimmy Sutman hosted the auction. He works with a diverse group of people at the Purple Cat, ISLE and Golden String Inc, with a mission of providing art opportunities for individuals with disabilities — whether that is doing watercolors, on the stage of the Youngstown Playhouse or reading their poems on GoldenStringRadio.org.

A new art experience was made possible through a creative collaboration with The Summit FM-90.7 A collection of unrepairable instruments, including violins, flutes, trombones, clarinets, saxophones, guitars and trumpets, were donated to The Summit through the Marilyn Stroud Music Alive Program.

Tywford Wilson said, “Melding visual art and music, we were able to offer our artist friends the challenge of taking these instruments and creating new pieces for auction at The Joy of SMARTS. Though these pieces were not able to be used by local bands and orchestras, their potential to educate students will live on through the proceeds of the auction, supporting future SMARTS programming.”

Entertainment for the evening was by DJ Eric Petroleum, a longtime member of SMARTS. He also writes poetry, plays and short stories in addition to creating small collages and large-scale paintings. In the past, he was a spoken word performance artist, and a rave DJ in the Columbus and Cleveland scenes. Petroleum said his efforts “are all products of the same creative outlet.”

A live demonstration of a work of art in progress was given by Willie Duck, who was working on an as yet untitled painting of Youngstown area boxing champions, Kelly Pavlik, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, Jeff Lampkins, Gregg Richardson and Harry Arroyo. Duck said he is a big sports fan and loves making his art relevant to the Youngstown community.

He received his art training at the Art School of Pittsburgh, where he developed a technique of creating his paintings first only in brown, before going back and adding the colors. He said it makes the painting like a coloring book, and once he has established the form, he can go back and focus on the color. He said his journey as an artist has taught him patience, focus and has taken him places he’d never thought he’d go. He enjoys adding to the journey by sharing what he knows with students. Often, he says, students find therapeutic value in the art that helps them with emotional issues or life circumstances.

Another artist with her work on display was photographer Dina Liguore of Youngstown. She is most passionate about photographing desolate places where one may not expect to find beauty. Her favorite place to photograph is the Mansfield Reformatory. She said she comes from a family of female artists, but was not drawn to it herself until 2022.

She credits her discovery of photography as really helping her “find herself” after pursuing “what life expects: marriage, family, career.” One of her contributions for the evening was a picture of the Realty Building in Youngstown just prior to its demolition, titled, “Phantasm.”

Youngstown resident and artist Brian Wilson was in attendance and spoke of his large, colorful, multimedia work called, “The Christmas One.” He used a variety of wrapping paper and tissue to create images, themes and stories. He said his process can be one of “play.”

“I will get a basic idea or direction and then just keep following the inspiration as I go,” he said. Because his works can be very image “heavy,” his wife, who artistically is a minimalist, calls him “a maximalist.”

Michael Greene of Youngstown had two pieces available for bidding. One was “Old and New Dreams,” a stylized representation of jazz musicians Ornate Coleman and Dewey Rodman. Musicians are one of Greene’s favorite subjects because of his love of music, particularly jazz. He quoted Miles Davis, ” Music is a painting you can hear; Painting is music you can see.”