Monday, April 11, 2011

Spring is art season at New Richmond

A sure sign of spring time in the New Richmond Exempted Village School District is the display of artwork everywhere from Columbus to the school board office to the hallways of the district’s five school buildings as part of Youth Art Month.

Youth Art Month kicked off with Monroe Elementary art teacher Adrian Vance and New Richmond art teacher Amy Cholkas recognizing the achievements of four of their students being selected for statewide exhibits. Faith Powers of Monroe and Ella Calhoun have their artwork on display at the Ohio Youth Art Exhibition at the State Teachers Retirement Building in Columbus.

Savannah Appelmann from Monroe and Archer Maguire from New Richmond were chosen as exhibitors for the 31st Young People Art Exhibition at the Rhodes State Office Tower in Columbus.

There’s no shortage of outstanding artwork elsewhere in the district and the work of all New Richmond’s student artists will be on display Friday, April 15 from 6-8 p.m. and Saturday, April 16 from 12-4 p.m. at the New Richmond High School gymnasium when the district showcases art work by students from its five buildings in the annual Kaleidoscope of the Arts.

"Students have been working hard to create some exciting artworks at Locust Corner Elementary,” said art teacher Tim Cook. “For instance, 5th grade students are working on their Paper-Mache' masks inspired by artists from around the globe, and our sixth graders just finished a 'Pop-Art' printmaking project and are moving into a clay figure sculpture inspired by the terra-cotta warriors of ancient china."


Monroe Elementary art teacher Adrian Hawk greets students for Glitzy, Bright, Neon dress day during the school's Art Spirit Week as part of its Youth Art Month celebration.

All students K-6 just finished up their artwork for the Art to Remember Program, a school wide fundraiser where every student created an artwork that can be printed on to keepsake type items.”

Locust Corner will hold its "Fine Arts Night" May 12th featuring a visual art show, music and band performances, and young author’s books.

New Richmond Middle School art students began the year with their 5th Annual Mural Project, and great activities continue this spring.

“The Advanced Art Students have chosen to compete in the 2011 ‘Doodle 4 Google’ contest,” said NRMS art teacher Jessica Isaacs. “They are creating digital artwork using Photoshop (for the first time). The theme is “What I want To Do Someday”. These students are competing for a $25,000 Technology Grant for our school as well as a scholarship towards the college.”

They will also be participating in the 2011 Student Art Show presented by the Cincinnati Arts Association. Their works will be on display April 16-April 24 in the Fifth Third Theater at The Aronoff Center!”

Monroe Elementary’s celebration of Youth Art Month included its annual Art Spirit Week when students dressed in daily color themes. Mrs. Hawk’s classes also painted ties for principal Mark Bailey and New Richmond superintendent Adam Bird.

New Richmond High School art teachers Stacy Gibbons and Amy Hauserman have come up with creative ways to take art beyond the tradition paper, pen and brush.

“We had many students participate in cake and cupcake decorating for the Ajax Knoechel Benefit,” said Ms. Gibbons. “Students baked and decorated cakes and cupcakes in many creative ways that were included in the cake walk and the bake sale. Some students also designed and painted flower pots that were auctioned off at the benefit as well.”

NRHS AP Studio art students also are working on completing their portfolios for the AP test in early May.

“During Youth Art Month, we are continuing the Minumentals tradition for the second year,” said Ms. Gibbons. “The students are exploring many different art movements and creating artworks that are no larger than 2". We will be including these in the Kaleidoscope of the.”