A new art exhibit in the High Country brings a unique west coast story eastward for the first time

A new art exhibit in the High Country is showcasing a unique story from the west coast. The show at the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum brings the once-forgotten efforts of a group of California high schoolers back into view.

In 1919 the principal of Gardena High School outside of Los Angeles began a program to enrich the cultural foundation of his majority Japanese American and Latino student body. He encouraged each senior class to acquire a work of art for their school. Through networking with individual outdoor landscape painters and visiting their studios, students received price breaks from many of the top American painters of the day.

They also organized exhibition fundraisers and invested the proceeds into art acquisition, collecting pieces that were a part of the California Impressionist movement of the early 20th century. These large canvases graced the gallery space and long hallways at Gardena High for nearly 40 years.

Susan M. Anderson is the former curator of Laguna Art Museum, and author of a color-illustrated book about the collection. She says then suddenly, the paintings disappeared.

"In 1956 they moved to a school that didn’t have hallways," she says. "And I just was shocked when in 2014 literally the students had no idea, the teachers had no idea, and the principal really had no idea that there was this cache of very, very valuable, really quite beautiful paintings hidden inside this small closet on campus."

Anderson estimates each work — originally purchased for a few hundred dollars — today ranges anywhere between $5,000 to $200,000 in value.

GIFTED: Collecting the Art of California at Gardena High School, 1919-1956 will remain on view at the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum through the end of December. It’s the first time the exhibit is being shown outside of California.