For months, RM artists have been painstakingly refining their work for the annual AP/IB Senior Art show. This year, the event took place Thursday night, March 20, and celebrated the creative talent of the graduating class of 2025. Visitors milled around Main Street with complimentary snacks, taking in a diverse array of mediums, themes, and messages.

The work of AP and IB students is exhibited together, and regardless of the class taken, each student explores a unique thematic question chosen at the beginning of the year. Mental health, human relationships and childhood are just a few topics that were investigated. In preparation for the show, artists constructed six to eight pieces relating to their theme, building towards a nuanced and expansive inquiry. 

Senior Josiah Main sought to answer the question of how games change people, a subject reflected in each of his works currently hung in the art gallery. “The impact of games changing people…remains the underlying idea that ties [my artworks] together,” Main wrote in his artist statement. For senior Kaitlyn Gomez Bejar, whose work is exhibited on the flats in Main Street, this underlying theme was the Latino experience. In another exhibition, senior Zachary Rittenhousesmith wrote about exploring “identity fear, memory and transformation through deconstruction and reconstruction.” 

The range of art and ideas that the show spotlights also serves as a reminder of the talent that RM houses. “There’s a lot of diversity in the different kinds of art, and it’s really cool to look at altogether,” junior Maia Inati said. 

Specific requirements for each exhibition did vary somewhat depending on the class taken. For IB students, the final project required slightly more writing and reflection with respect to the artistic process. “It’s not too long, but for every single artist you study you have to write a lot about that,” IB art student and senior Nathan D’Cruze said. “It’s a really good process to help you improve your own artwork and to understand your own connection to your theme.”

Some students took a looser approach to developing a connection between their art and theme. “I discovered…that I had more fun with making the art when I didn’t focus on doing a deep connection to the theme, but used it as a jumping off point for my ideas to organically develop,” Main said. 

In the last few weeks leading up to the show, students began to focus on logistic preparations in earnest. “The last two weeks have been a mad scramble of just trying to get everything ready for the day and making sure everything looks good,” senior Kristen Swain said.

Deciding how to arrange their work was an important step that artists put a lot of thought into. Pieces were either set in frames from prior years or matted — a process that involves placing a flat piece of material around a work instead of a frame. “I had one piece that kind of sticks out from the illustration board that it’s on, so I had to find a special way to mat it,” Main said.

Like most components of the art show, the general theme of the night was also decided on and implemented by students. Student-produced decorations immersed the audience in a forest of art, from the large arch at the entrance of the art gallery to the assorted greenery surrounding each piece. “Everything is completely led by the students,” Swain said. “A lot of the input we had from our teachers was suggestions on how to keep [the show] professional and clean.”

The RM art show brought in a set of visitors as diverse as its installations. Ranging from former art teachers to current RM staff and students, the art show was crowded with people. “I think it’s really amazing that so many kids here know how to express their emotions on the canvas so well,” senior Adam Yachin said. 

For interested students who may not have attended the Thursday event, the art show will remain on Main Street and inside the gallery for the foreseeable future. “It was so exciting to see how everything came together, especially as somebody who put so much work into the show,” Swain said. “I’m really proud of us as a class, and each individual person for creating such beautiful artwork.”

Find some students reviews of the artwork here.

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