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By GRACE AGOSTINThe Pyramid Adult Day Training Program plans a June event to let students display and sell their work.
LeeArtis Hendry skims through a book of Italian Renaissance artwork, searching for his next art project. Like other students at the Pyramid Adult Day Training Program, Hendry is creating pieces to be sold in the center's new art gallery.
Last month, the Pyramid Adult Day Training Program, a nonprofit company that offers training, education and activities for the developmentally disabled, opened an art gallery to give members a chance to display and sell their art.
"We've seen our artistic talent bloom," said Michelle Tolini, a day program coordinator at Pyramid, 1508 W Sligh Ave. "We had some people who just floored us with amazing abilities."
Hendry, 31, used acrylics to re-create Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' La Grande Odalisque. Before attending art classes at Pyramid, Hendry used only pencils to make basic sketches, Tolini said.
On the gallery's opening night March 18, about half of the 19 pieces on display sold, she said. The pieces range from $30 to $125 and include pastels and acrylic paintings. The artists get 65 percent of the sale, and Pyramid receives the rest.
"We didn't expect to sell as well as we did," Tolini said.
Based on the success, Pyramid plans to have another gallery event in June. This time, students will focus on international art styles, said Andrea Poulos, visual arts coordinator at Pyramid.
"We're having them research a country and use the different artistic styles they see in the culture and make their own piece," Poulos said.
Since the gallery opened, Poulos said the artists have received requests for commissioned work that gives them a chance to earn money. Pieces that were on display in the gallery were also reprinted on greeting cards and T-shirts to be sold in Pyramid's gift shop.
About 100 members at Pyramid participate in art-directed activities, but Poulos said only about nine of them were chosen to have their work featured in the gallery.
"The gallery shows the really progressed or talented artists we have," Poulos said.
- Grace Agostin can be reached at 226-3434 or at gagostin@sptimes.com