Middle Gate Students Acknowledge Their Creative Spirit

By Shannon Hicks

With a diverse selection of artworks as well as musical presentations, The First Annual Middle Gate Festival of the Arts was offered during the early evening of March 11.

Students returned to school for a few hours on Thursday evening to show their parents some of the works of art they had been working on since the beginning of the school year. Stephanie Adam, who teaches first through fourth grade at the elementary school, welcomed students and their parents into the art room last week during the two-hour event. Although she does not teach kindergarten students — they have their own in-class art projects — Ms Adam said she had sought the artwork of kindergarteners for the special event.

“They’re part of this school, too, so I wanted them to feel involved in this evening,” Ms Adams said.

Due to the amount of art being displayed the exhibition not only encompassed the walls and many desks within the school’s art room, it also spread into a few hallways.

A display in the art room offered Bears in Their Habitats, clay pandas and brown bears by kindergarten students. In a hallway between the art room and the school’s gymnasium and cafeteria — where the other half of the festival was taking place — visitors were also treated to a collection of “When I Am 100” drawings by the kindergarten students on one bulletin board, and a collection of cardboard gingerbread men on another board.

Back in the art room was an area devoted to Midnight Cats, works by first grade students, who created their own cats, drawing on black paper, after listening to a reading of John Brown, Rose and The Midnight Cat.

“The students are so used to working on white paper that they almost had to think in reverse for these,” Ms Adams said. “It was very fun for them, though. They seemed to enjoy this, and no two cats are alike.”

Second grade artists had done Faces with Feelings, where the young artists used colors to indicate the different emotions the characters in their drawings were feeling; and I Spy Designs, drawing a scene with objects hidden within their designs.

Oil pastels by third graders were featured in another area. The young artists had used pastels that are in crayon form, which allows better control of the medium and results in bright, vibrant colors.

“They’re very messy to work with, but they give you very intense colors and the kids love them,” Ms Adams said.

Fourth grade students had done Grid Designs, creating art using colored pencils on graph paper, and there two collections of self-portraits.

“For the Grid Designs, I introduced the idea of using something in art that they usually see in math,” Ms Adams explained.

On the self-portraits the students first created images of themselves with backgrounds that offer a look into each artist’s personality.

“I had to be able to look at each portrait and see what each artist likes to do during his or her free time,” said the teacher. The second set of self-portraits came with the challenge of geometry: the students had to draw themselves using shapes.

Music was also celebrated during the festival.

To open the evening parents were invited to watch or join their children during a recorder concert at 6 pm. Fourth grade students who have been studying the recorder offered a performance, and then the floor was opened to parents who wished to join their children with their own instrument.

Third grade students then had the run of the room at 7 for an autoharp demonstration.

“Music By Middle Gate Alumni” ran for the remainder of the evening, with CDs and cassettes by Middle Gate faculty and alumni being played.

The gymnasium was turned into a dance hall at 6:30, where square dancing demonstrations began. Students first offered performances of square dances and then invited friends and parents to join them for more dances.

Individual works of art and groups of performers collectively demonstrated last week that Middle Gate School’s creative spirit is alive and well.