Riverside Elementary Arts Festival Teaches Students In An Engaging Way

Willem Dorman-Schroeder, 6, pushes down the pedal of a sewing machine as he watches artist Carolyn Cook guide the stitching around two pieces of fabric. He then hurries back to his desk and begins stuffing the fabric full of cotton to make a pillow. “I’m going to use this to have a pillow fight with my brother,” he says.  

Down the hallway, Samuel Auerbach, 10, Aaron Garcia, 10,  and Richayla Smith, 9, proudly stand by their artwork that hangs in the hallway outside their 4^th grade classroom. Their class read “Harriet and the Promised Land” and “The Great Migration” by Jacob Lawrence and then drew their own versions of the artist’s work. “My picture took me three art sessions and a recess,” said Auerbach.  

Their artwork contributes to the many paintings and drawings adorning the hallways of Riverside Elementary School. Under the direction of art teacher Ken Wilkie, each class spent weeks studying a culture or a famous artist’s work and then re-created it for their annual Riverside Arts Festival. “We took something from it and interpreted it in our own way,” Wilkie said.

The students and local artists displayed all their hard work on Thursday night’s Artists’ Showcase. “The exhibits made the school into a little art museum,” said Wilkie. Visitors could walk around the school to see the Australian Aboriginal art of Mrs. Riley’s first grade class or Mrs. Birbeck’s third-grader’s interpretation of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

“The parents come in, they walk around and get the whole essence,” said Principal William Cirullo.

On Friday, the school welcomed many local artists, as well as artistic teachers, to help the students spend the day making crafts. Cook, a toymaker from Willingboro has volunteered to help the kindergarten classes with their artwork for over a decade. Eileen Hicks, an English as a Second Language teacher at the school, used her interest in Japan to teach origami. Other artists included theatrical prop makers and graphic designers. “An artist even came in to teach cartoons,” said Garcia.

 The festival was a great way to teach the students about art while getting them, and the community, involved. “We got to see what we can do and learn new things,” said Smith.