Courtesy of a Peru High School alumni, the Peru Community Schools has a world-class, original art collection consisting of paintings from Spanish cubist Pablo Picasso to 54 pieces of oriental art.

Those pieces and more have been displayed at the Peru High School Art Gallery, where at 2 p.m. today a Fort Wayne art historian is giving a free lecture on the “Ashcan School of Artists.”

The gallery is open for viewing from 1 to 4 p.m. and is located at 401 N. Broadway.

The event, “Sundays at the Gallery,” is sponsored by the Peru Community Schools Arts Alive! program, which also maintains the art collection.

In 1938, in honor of his teacher and principal, John Whittenberger, G. David Thompson began giving Peru part of his unique art collection, which consisted of 138 paintings and prints, a stone sculpture and the oriental ceramics pieces. One piece even dates back to 215 B.C., said Connie Cutler, coordinator of the Arts Alive! program.

Until his death in 1965, Cutler added, Thompson continued to contribute his art collection to Peru — often acquiring pieces specifically with the high school collection in mind.

“At some world-class museums, we have pieces they don’t have by artists they have,” said Cutler. “It’s really amazing the original pieces of art we have here. We have some of the oriental pieces out on loan to a museum.”

Having so much original art in one place isn’t the norm, especially for a school district, according to an art educator.

“It’s not common for a school, any school, to have an art collection and program like this,” said Elizabeth Kuebler-Wolf, program director of art history at the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, and today’s keynote speaker.

Kuebler-Wolf will address Ashcan artists who painted at the turn of the 20th Century. She said the artists painted good, bad and ugly images of city life and Kuebler-Wolf will speak about why that’s an important part of American art history.

“When I heard some of the [artists’] names they had in this collection, I was shocked,” she continued. “This is really a fantastic little treasure you have here. This is really exciting.”

Cutler said she wants the art collection to be used as a teaching tool for students and to be shared with the community. As a result, the Peru Art Collection Advisory Board, which began in 1977 for maintenance and conservation of the collection, recently began sponsoring the not-for-profit Arts Alive!

The purpose of Arts Alive!, Cutler said, is to use the Peru art collection as an educational tool, not only for Peru students and the community, but also for surrounding schools and communities.

Because the Peru gallery isn’t large enough to display the whole collection at once, this summer, Cutler commissioned a digital-management catalog of the collection.

Intern Megan Oldfather, 23, and a graduate of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis’ Herron School of Art and Design, is spending 200 hours organizing the collection.

“This is a hidden jewel,” said Oldfather, who is receiving graduate credit for the internship and plans to work at the Indiana Museum of Arts this fall. “It is really amazing, the pieces we have here. I grew up around here and didn’t know all this existed.”

To get students more acquainted with art, Arts Alive! also sponsors Gallery to Go!, where smaller, light-weight replicas of artwork are taken into classrooms.

“It’s portable and we let them know that it’s OK to touch the art,” said Cutler, adding the collection has been appraised by the world-renowned fine arts auction house, Christie’s.

“We have lesson plans teachers can use that are based on the paintings. We also give students postcard-sized pictures of the artwork so they can start their own art gallery at home. I’ve noticed kids are really drawn to abstract pieces because they are more colorful and bright.”

The final Arts Alive! “Sundays at the Gallery” is 1 to 4 p.m. Aug. 14 and will feature Charles Shepard III, director of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, who will address the “American Spirit.” In addition, the Peru Community Orchestra will perform.

“Arts Alive! has done a fantastic job for our community and for our school system,” said Chuck Brimbury, superintendent of Peru Community Schools. “It is a wonderful program and our community is very, very proud of the fine arts program we have in Peru.”