Displayed in Dartmouth High's gymnasium, panels, tables, and mannequins welcomed guests with bright colors, funky shapes, and perfected stitching.

At the crowded, ninth annual K-12 Art Show, Potter student Valerie Carreira, 8, pointed at a pinwheel design, filled with blues and pinks.

"This is called a radial design," she said. "I first put random things that looked cool that I liked. Then, when I was finished, I painted it."

Her classmate Olivia Cabral, 8, explained that radial designs are defined by the way they work outward from the center. Cabral most enjoyed the green screen, however.

"I think the green thing projects stuff, kind of like picture day when they put the backgrounds," she said.

The display represented 28 different art courses — including drawing and painting, photography, jewelry and fashion design, ceramics, and video — from all of the public schools, explained K-12 Arts Coordinator Judy Cronin. The high school has 38 art classes alone, she said.

"The show is about sharing the work of our students with parents, friends, and the community," she said. Cronin said she's seen 30 such student art shows in her time with the school, and they've grown quite a bit.

The one-night gallery display started small, in the library, until one superintendent — Dr. Steve Russell — noticed how congested the display had gotten and insisted on moving it to the gym, said Cronin.