“I am not an artist,” said Dr. Gene Leonard.
After welcoming the audience and thanking those in attendance and the Gala Committee, this is how Dr. Gene Leonard decided to begin his speech. His opening established himself as one who enjoys the arts but does not partake in them. His passion is evident through his creation of the Elementary Art Collection, which is a part of the reason he was selected as the honoree at The One Hundred Friends of Art Gala 2025. His love for the arts shines through this collection that is celebrating twenty-five years, as well as in the rest of his service to the district.
The honoree is unsure of where his love of art stemmed from, but it can only be assumed that throughout his life, he learned to appreciate good art. “I don’t know, God gave it to me,” Dr. Leonard said.
Dr. Leonard, a Derry native, has had a long and illustrious career. He began his career as a teacher along the border of Pennsylvania and New York, in Bradford, PA, where he taught for seven years before returning home to take up a teaching position at Mountain View Elementary School. His job as a science and math teacher then transformed into the role of principal, where he stayed for thirteen years.
The now-retired principal’s leadership role in the Greater Latrobe School District exposed him to the senior high school’s blossoming art collection. As he witnessed the school’s halls adorned with student-selected artwork, inspiration struck, and he sought to create the Elementary Art Collection. “I often looked at the art collection at the high school and wondered to myself, why wait until the students are in high school to appreciate good art?” said Dr. Leonard.
Another piece of Dr. Leonard’s journey was his time spent as the GLSD Director of Elementary Education. During his time as the director, he used his position to integrate the arts into the elementary schools. He visited the Latrobe Art Club, which was the establishment prior to the Latrobe Art Center, and borrowed three local artists’ collections. These collections spent a month at each elementary school before rotating, so each school could experience all three collections. “I wanted the students to get the feel for art and not just their own art, but the art from other people,” Dr. Leonard said.
With the help of the Art Conservation Trust, Dr. Leonard was able to create the Elementary Art Collections in 2000. This year’s Art Gala revolved around this collection and the celebration of its 25th Anniversary. Throughout the night, the honoree received many congratulations on his selection as the Art Gala’s 2025 Honoree. However, he humbly rejected these congratulations and continually said, “This evening isn’t about me. This evening is about the Elementary Art Collection.”
As a lover of the arts, the extension of art at the elementary level was a dream come true for Dr. Leonard. He dedicated so much of his career to Greater Latrobe’s elementary schools, including the establishment of this collection. “To me, having [the Elementary Art Collection] initiated back in 2000 was just something that I always envisioned, and so it was a real joy to see it happen,” said Dr. Leonard.
The upkeep of the Elementary Art Collection, along with the Senior High’s Collection, was something that Dr. Leonard not only attributed to the Art Conservation Trust, but also to the students who walk Latrobe’s halls. The care for this artwork is a testament to all of Greater Latrobe School District’s dedication to the promotion of the arts. “It amazed me that there could be that kind of quality collection in the school, and there isn’t spray paint or magic marker [on it]. So it wasn’t just the collection, it was the students who amazed me as well,” Dr. Leonard said.
The Elementary Art Collection set out to “create ownership in the art collection and inspire our young students”, and that’s exactly what the collection has done and will continue to do for many years to come. Thanks to Dr. Leonard’s efforts to begin the collection twenty-five years ago, the elementary students now get to enjoy quality art throughout the entirety of their high school careers, which was exactly Dr Leonard’s goal. He ended his speech with this sentiment: “The art collection was created years ago with the goal of children exploring and seeing good art at a young age.”
The first acquisitions by the Elementary Art Collection were Summer Cottage by Helen Currykosky at Latrobe Elementary School, The Rabbit Patch by June Carnahan at Mountain View Elementary, and On the Bay by Dolly Lynch at Baggaley Elementary School. These paintings built the foundation for a collection that now makes up a portion of GLSD’s Art Collection, which contains over 200 pieces.
This collection has had a lasting impact on the students who pass through the elementary school’s halls. One student in particular, Alexa Henschel of Baggaley, vividly remembers LES’s painting Summertime by Rita Lee Spalding, so much so that she chose to write a poem about this piece. “When I had to choose a piece of art to write a poem about, the vibrant and full-of-life painting came to my head,” Alexa said. Even though Alexa attended Baggaley, she attended an Art Show for her sister at LES, where she saw the painting, and it stuck in her brain.
The memories of these pieces of art were the 2025 Honoree’s original goal when creating the Elementary Art Collection. This is the legacy that Dr. Leonard has left behind after establishing the collection, which will continue to leave a mark on Greater Latrobe for years to come.
