Community invited to annual FSD Art Show

By Matt Nagle

Fife Free Press
mattnagle@tacomaweekly.com
Published on: May 22, 2008

Students from five schools in the Fife School District are getting ready for the fourth annual Fife School District Art Show May 28 at the Columbia Junior High School library. There is no charge for admission, and the community is invited to stop by any time during the show’s hours, 6-8 p.m., and take a look at what the creative students have been working on in their art classes and on their own. The exhibit will include up to 300 pieces of artwork from students at Hedden Elementary School, Endeavour Intermediate School, Surprise Lake Middle School, Columbia Junior High School and Fife High School.

“It’s fun to see the wide variety of art,” said Nadine Baxter, the art teacher at Surprise Lake who organizes the show each year with art instructors Kendra Danielson (Hedden and Endeavour), Melissa Brownell (Columbia Junior High) and Kelli Loomis (Fife High School).

Baxter said the show encompasses a wide variety of art – sculpture, pottery, oil pastels, oil paints, acrylics, watercolors, drawings and mixed media. The show is also a blend of many different styles and influences. Some pieces will reflect a Picasso-like style or a Matisse influence, as these are two great artists the younger students study, while other works will be of the students’ own creation. All works will be judged on their individual merits and be eligible for awards that will be distributed at each grade level for “Best in Show,” “People’s Choice” and other categories.

In Baxter’s class, students have been studying Harlem Renaissance-based art to learn how art can communicate a specific and important message while at the same time stand as an attractive work simply to look at.

It is all about learning as much as it is about having fun and making art.

“What’s fun for the kids is if they’re young, they get to see what projects they’ll be doing in the future,” Baxter said.

Danielson said that for juniors and seniors the show provides an opportunity to show their skills in metal and woodwork while at the same time allowing them to reminisce about their own early studies in art, when names like Picasso and Matisse were brand new to them. “It’s a great showcase for all the kids in art classes in the district to see what art looks like in second grade and what kids do when they’re in 12th grade,” Danielson said, noting that the show is not open to just art class students but any student in Fife schools who wants to show his or her art.

The event will also highlight students’ skills at making banners. This year Andy Warhol is the chosen artist whose style will be seen in the banner that students in each participating school will create incorporating that school’s mascot into the theme. The banners will hang in the Columbia Junior High cafeteria for the rest of the school year.

For Baxter and the rest of the art instructors, the show provides a good community connection. “Any time you can get to see students’ work on display it affirms them and validates what they’re doing,” Baxter said.

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