Students Make Their Own Choices For School Art Show

By Shannon Hicks

Hawley School hosted its annual spring student art show this week, and students of the Church Hill Road school enjoyed showing some of the fruits of their artistic labor during the school-wide celebration. Countless children were seen tugging on the hands of their parents, understandably a little more excited to be walking through the jammed parking lot of the Newtown elementary school during the waning hours of Tuesday evening than they usually are during the day.

The students were buoyed by the idea of sharing with their mothers and fathers, and even sisters and brothers, some of their hard work. Indoors, countless clusters of people had two hours to make their way through the hallways, the media center, and even into a few classrooms to admire hundreds of pieces of artwork in varying shapes and forms.

Visitors were entertained by an alternating selection of recorder students (perhaps the inclusion of a few Christmas carols was meant to help the guests think of cooler temperatures) while meandering through the art show. There were papier maché sculptures, African masks, landscapes, clowns and circus animals, collage pieces, clay cats, studies in symmetry, fluorescent masks, and scratch board creations.

In a break from tradition, art teacher Vicki Sheskin decided this year to give students the opportunity to select the works being presented during the annual event. For this reason, the show was called “Gallery 2001: A Student-Choice Art Show.”

“I can emphatically say that it was an even greater learning experience for me,” Ms Sheskin wrote in her welcome note for this year’s program. “I learned that it is not possible, nor entirely desirable for [students] at this young age, to select the piece based on a set of adult criteria.

“I learned that my young art students do indeed make their selections based on an inner attachment to their work that was part of the creative process,” the teacher’s note continued. “In many cases, some of the best pieces were overlooked in favor of another that the child had a personal connection with.

“I even tried to coax some children into rethinking their choice, often to no avail,” she admitted. “I was totally surprised and delighted to learn the degree of passion our students can have for their art.”

And when teaching children, one thing is unquestionably more important than a set of adult selection standards: A promise is a promise, especially coming from an adult to a child. Which may explain why some of the works on view this year may not have been standard-setters, but they were all charming in their own rights. The selections were varied, enjoyable, colorful, and entertaining all around.

Another addition to this year’s show was the inclusion of autobiographical, or artist’s, statements by each child. Handwritten notes by the students were presented their artwork, accompanied by a color photograph of the child.

“I can’t believe how many names I am recognizing and putting together tonight with their faces,” one parent was overheard saying. “This is adding even more enjoyment to the show.”

Among the observations found on the walls of Hawley School were the phrases “I usually do art when I’m feeling upset about something because it kind of blocks the rest of the world out of focus and calms me down,” “Art is one of my favorite activities,” and “I love the things we do in art like drawing and animal portraits. I hope you like my work. I’ve worked very hard and I’m very proud of it,” among dozens of others.

The comments continued, from “Art to me is a wonderful way to express your feelings in your drawings you do” and “My favorite artist is Magritte because I like how he draws things,” to even the simplest statement, “I like to paint a rainbow.”

Children’s creativity is best seen sometimes in the art they create when given the freedom to express themselves. By allowing the students to select what they felt was their best (or favorite, as Ms Sheskin may very well be correct in thinking), the young artists of Hawley School proved this week that the best way to enjoy a child’s creativity is to join them in a full immersion of that imaginative output.