Travel writer visits Gail Keenan Art Center

Special to Long Beach Breeze

Pictured (l to r) are writer Erin Austen Abbot, Gail Keenan Art Center Curator Ann Madden and Coast Episcopal School Head of School Jake Winter.

Travel writer Erin Austen Abbot recently visited the Coast Episcopal School (CES) campus’ Gail Keenan Art Center (GKAC), where she met with GKAC Curator Ann Madden and CES Head of School Jake Winter. The visit was conducted to familiarize Abbot, as an author, with the impact the GKAC has on area school students, in addition to the Coast Episcopal students. Abbott said she was particularly interested in the amount of exposure the CES students have to the professional art shows at GKAC that Madden curates three times a year, providing them with the opportunity to be exposed to professional works for approximately fifty percent of the school year.

“Each of our professional shows is installed for six to seven weeks, bringing the total number of weeks our students, who come to GKAC for art and music classes, to experience professional works for eighteen to twenty-one weeks,” said Winter.  Winter also noted that another show featured annually at the school is “Children in the Arts,” which is open to students throughout the region, kicks off at CES’ annual Toast to the Coast in October and then is displayed at the gallery through December.

Additionally, Abbot learned about the school’s spring 2025 “School Waves” installation, a public art partnership of the MS Arts Commission, the Walter Anderson Museum, Studio Waveland, and CES families and donors that resulted in a colorful sculpture and exterior painting that connects the school’s Seemann Makerspace and the Gail Keenan Art Center.