By Shannon Hicks

When the clock struck midnight back on New Year’s Eve, signalling the start of a new year, a new decade, a new century, and a new millennium, the students in the art program at Hawley School in Newtown also recognized that moment as something special. That milestone was about the midway point in their school year of artistically celebrating “Hawley 2000! Honor the Past. Imagine the Future.”

Students and faculty at the Church Hill Road school have been celebrating the once-in-a-lifetime event of the turn of the 21st Century with myriad art forms, looking back to the past and the many interesting cultures of the world, and envisioning what the future may hold for all inhabitants of our world… and beyond.

On Wednesday, May 3, it was time to present a public celebration of what had until then been kept inside the art room walls at Hawley School. Outside it was a beautiful, crisp spring night. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as cars milled around the parking lot of Hawley School and drivers looked for precious spaces as they opened up. Other families parked across the street, and small groups of children were seen eagerly leading their parents — many tugging impatiently on the strong adult hands they were holding on to — to the entrance of their school.

Inside the building that bears the name of Newtown’s greatest benefactress, the story was completely different. The calm of outdoors was replaced with an excited energy. The hallways and media center of Hawley School were simply teeming with activity, as students of all ages sought their artworks, pointing them out to each other, and, more proudly, to their parents.

Every student at Hawley School had at least one work of art on display. There were Native American symbols, African-style mini masks, kachina dolls, Japanese dolls in kimonos, and totem-style masks, all representing the students’ efforts at honoring figures of the past.

There were cut paper aliens and papier maché robots by the first graders, circle-printed aliens and planets by the second graders, symmetrically-designed aliens by the third graders, flying foil friends by fourth graders, and clay slab aliens, Y2K bugs and futuristic robots by the fifth graders.

There were clowns and shape paintings by more first graders, family portraits and winter trees by second graders, scratch board radials and clay turtles by the third graders, and funny cartoon family portraits and montages by fourth graders.

The entire main level of Hawley School was a living art museum Wednesday night. For two hours, students and their parents enjoyed the work that has been created since the beginning of the school year. In the background, music was provided by fourth grade recorder students of Mrs Ziemann. The group had people stopping in their tracks to listen to the presentations of popular songs from a number of eras.