NMS Students And Staff ‘Draw On!’

By Eliza Hallabeck

A project that started at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield three years ago recently spread to the halls of Newtown Middle School, and now a formation of art is hanging in the lobby of the school.

“The impulse to draw is with us from an early age; we scribbled, chalked on sidewalks and wrote our names in the sand at the beach. We draw to plan, to dream, to document. We record our existence with our marks,” wrote NMS art teacher Arleen Spoonfeather as an invitation for the rest of the school to participate in the week’s celebration of the act of drawing.

From March 28 to April 4 the museum’s celebration, called Draw On!, will be recognized not just at the museum and NMS, but also at other schools and locations across the state.

“When I passed this out to the adults,” Ms Spoonfeather said regarding the invitation, “everyone was excited.”

The challenge for students and staff at the middle school was to free form draw on a 2-inch by 9-inch piece of paper and hand it in to the art department, and from there the pieces of paper were linked into the form that can now be viewed in the lobby of the school. So far roughly 1,000 pieces of paper have been turned in, and more are handed in each day.

“It really touched everybody’s hearts,” said Ms Spoonfeather.

NMS art teacher Claudia Mitchell said envelopes were placed outside of the art room doors to collect everyone’s work.

“It’s just nice to know that we’re doing it, and so are other schools all over Connecticut,” she said.