This was not your routine wine and cheese reception for artists; the menu tended more towards juice boxes and animal crackers.

And the artists were more interested in playing hide and seek amid the hair dryers than discussing their works of art.

Nonetheless it was an occasion special enough to warrant getting out a party dress, in the view of Maya Cisneros, one of the 104 artists whose work is on exhibit at the Arrangement salon in downtown Napa.

“She believes that you can’t go to a gallery unless you’re dressed up,” explained Maya’s mother, Maria.

Maya, a first-grader dressed in black velvet and pink lace, did take time out of the party to show this writer her work, “Iguana,”  a vivid  image, artfully framed. 

“Windows to the Heart” displays the work of students in the Bel Aire Park Elementary Alternative Program, the school within a school in north Napa. Tere Charney, a parent volunteer and art teacher, said students had chosen a work from the portfolios they assemble in class throughout the year.

With help in the form of discounts from Angel Ramirez at Ben Franklin Framing, parents matted and framed the works, which line the walls of the Napa salon.

And what a collection of works it is: glowing suns and iguanas share space with self-portraits and images of hearts. “Art is everywhere, even in the bathroom,” one parent pointed out.  

“Our clients love it,” said Terry Brown, the owner of the Arrangement. She regularly welcomes artists to display works in the salon, but this show, Brown said, is proving to be one of the most popular.

“Clients keep asking if they can buy the paintings,” she said, explaining that the show came about after Charney, a patron at the Arrangement, asked about the possibility of staging a show there. “I had no idea it was going to turn out this well,” Brown said.

When the show went up Feb. 4, “everyone’s spirits just lifted,” said Amanda Poole, who owns  Simply Skin, which opens off of the Arrangement. “Everyone was just so revived by this (show).”

Leslie Gjestvang, who teaches fourth grade at Bel Aire Alternative, said art is a large part of the program. “We’re so fortunate that parents are so supportive,” she added, glancing around at the salon brimming with kids, parents and grandparents.  “We’re able to do different things because of the parent support.”

Among the grandparents at the reception were Ron and Cheryl Ernst, who had come with two granddaughters, Alyssa, 3, and Kayley, 6, to see Kayley’s painting of a glorious sun with intriguing designs in its rays including the equation 4 + 4.

“Kayley told us she likes math,” her grandfather explained.

Charney said the works were the result of a “Meet the Masters” program at the school, which brings visiting artists into the classrooms. Charney, whose four children have attended Bel Aire Alternative, is the visiting artist for first grade. The other artists include Erin Musgrove  in kindergarten; Lynne Tuft  in second and fourth grades; Christiane Tsouo-Harvey in third grade and Ginette Ilsley in fifth grade.

“It is a vital part of our curriculum at Bel Aire Park Alternative,” Charney said.

The artwork can be viewed through March 27 at the Arrangement, 821 Coombs St., Napa.