SMART Program Ends With Student Work On Display

About 150 students participated in this year’s Summer Music and Arts (SMART) program conducted by Newtown’s Adult and Continuing Education Department at Middle Gate School. Amid handmade books, sketches, and paintings, the program came to an end with a showcase last Friday.

In two short weeks of classes, students ranging from first to sixth graders developed sensitivity, creativity, and thinking skills. During a typical day, students had the chance to attend three different classes that touched upon four broad disciplines: music, visual arts, creative drama, and science.

Students learned to play the clarinet and saxophone, sing, paint, and sculpt, as well as try their hands at some introductory-level acting classes.

However at SMART, emphasis went beyond learning basic instruments and skills; students are encouraged to learn the process behind such things as performing a play or writing a book.

At SMART’s culminating event, parents got a chance to see what their children had been working on during the past two weeks. A student-run play was performed in Middle Gate’s gymnasium, and the school’s cafeteria was turned into something akin to an art gallery.

Student sculpture rested on display paper; paintings and lithographs were displayed on easels and walls; books, written and designed by students, balanced uneasily on top of tables.

And as students poured out of Middle Gate last Friday afternoon with their parents, many commented that the SMART program succeeded in keeping their young minds sharp during their summer vacation. That reality will prove to serve them well as the first day of school fast approaches.