A visitor to the Lawrence Arts Center passes by part of the exhibit for “Common Ground” a retrospective show at the LAC that showcases hundreds of works made by students who have taken classes at the center. The artwork is displayed on walls throughout the building.

Ben Ahlvers looks around the Lawrence Arts Center, a little exhausted by the work it takes to help hang 400 pieces of art, and he makes an observation.

“We’ve made a lot of holes in the walls,” he says.

That’s the price you pay when you want to highlight the variety of artists who have taken classes at the arts center through the years — young and old, novice and experienced, in many media, with many different subjects.

The normally neutral walls of the arts center have been filled with color featuring works by some 370 artists in “Common Ground,” which opens Monday at the center, 940 N.H.

“There has never been a student show of this scale,” says Ahlvers, associate education director. “It felt like it was time to show what is being done here.”

‘Something big’

Planning for the large-scale show started in February. It celebrates the 35th anniversary of the center’s history and the seventh year of its current location. Seven years may not be a typical anniversary to celebrate, but some have said the newness of the 940 N.H. location has worn off, creating a need for a splashy, large-scale exhibition.

Plus, the center has been in a leadership crisis of sorts. After longtime executive director Ann Evans retired in 2007, the center eventually hired a new director, David Leamon, in November 2008. He abruptly announced his resignation in July, and now the center is searching for a new executive director.

“The arts center needed to do something big, something that had never been done before,” Ahlvers says.

So the center sent out a call for entries to some 6,000 former students in its database. Organizers didn’t know what to expect, but they ended up with enough entries to cover the walls of the main and second floors of the center — in addition to sculpture works and a faculty exhibition filling the galleries.

The resulting exhibition, organizers hope, not only highlights the arts center’s education programs but springboards the Lawrence arts community into a new era of collaboration and appreciation.

“We see all the cool things going in the classes,” says Kris Hermanson, the center’s education director. “But it seems to be insular to the classroom.”

The students

Those classes, and the exhibition, involve everyone from preschoolers to retired adults.

Some examples of those students, who have pieces in “Common Ground”:

• Joelle Ford, who created a work with her four grandchildren, ages 4 through 10.

She had them paint on two canvases, then, as she says, “I tried to make sense of it.” She ended up with collages featuring photos of her grandchildren along with the paintings.

Ford raised her four daughters around the arts center. Now, she’s glad to have her grandchildren involved in arts center classes and theater productions.

“I thought it was a wonderful idea,” she says of the exhibition. “It’s interesting to see what different people are doing. .. It’s a great community undertaking.”

• Bill Dymacek, who took art classes in high school but spend his entire career as a science teacher, retiring in 2001. He started taking painting classes again in 2002.

“Mostly it’s been still life,” he says, “trying to get back to the basics.”

He took a look at other “Common Ground” works.

“I thought I was outclassed,” he admits.

He’s hoping to learn from all the works, which are displayed salon-style.

“I struggle with color,” he says. “Use of color is what I’m looking for.”

• Angie Babbit, a Lawrence resident since 2005, who has taken classes at the arts center and has children ages 6 and 9 who have taken classes there.

She focuses mainly on print-making. But she’d like to start a new line of work in photography.

“It’s a lot different from walking through an art museum,” she says of “Common Ground.” “You have all different skill levels. Those at the baseline of skills actually have a lot to offer to those with experience. They’re trying things different from doing things in the conventional way. Some of them are teaching themselves. They see things in a different light.”

• Karen Matheis, an art teacher in the Shawnee Mission school district who has been involved in the arts center since it was at the old Carnegie Library location at Ninth and Vermont streets.

She entered two pieces — an abstract and a still life of onions.

“We are really lucky to have the arts center in a community our size,” she says.

Sparking questions

Organizers hope the show, and the events surrounding it, spark a new interest in the arts in Lawrence.

“It’s been great to see color on the walls and all over the building,” Hermanson says. “It has a great energy to it.”

She adds: “How do we take that and go from here? We’re watching and getting ideas as it goes.”

Hermanson and Ahlvers are hoping the events during the “Common Ground” exhibition spark some additional ideas — and, for that matter, some questions.

“This sort of thing has the potential to ask a lot of questions,” Ahlvers says. “Those are questions about who is and who isn’t an artist. We don’t give answers. But we like to have people ask those questions.”