Farragut 8th Graders Take an Art Break

Yesterday was not an ordinary day for Farragut Middle School 8th graders. For the seventh year in a row, teachers and community volunteers turned classrooms into art studios, and kitchens and the gym into a circus for the Grade Eight Arts Extravaganza.

The Arts Extravaganza, overseen by Farragut art teacher Ezra Elliot, is "a partnership of teachers, artists, students, and parents" that gives the students a chance to stretch their artistic boundaries under the tutelage of working artists who volunteer their time for the occasion.

"It's a fun event, but it's also really informative," Elliot said. "It'one-hundred percent hands-on; that is something we strived for. We don't want it to be a lecture type of thing. Every kid is either making or participating in a variety of different arts."

The day was divided into three sessions, followed by lunch and an afternoon performance from high school musical groups Primate House and Zack & The Harts.

For the work sessions, students attended workshops on costume design, digital photography, jewelry making, acting, 3-D self-portraits, knitting, Italian cooking, circus arts, drawing, and surrealism.Local professionals, parents, and teachers who have some sort of expertise in the arts led the workshops.

Explained art teacher Mary Trainor, "It gives a chance for the kids to actually work with practicing artists."

Farragut Middle school Principal Gail Kipper saw value in this student/artist interaction that went beyond one single day. "They're interacting with grownups in the community in a different way," she said. "They're being afforded opportunities to see what they might choose to do down the line."

But it's not just the students that enjoy the event. Many of the volunteers come back year after year to share their particular talents with a new group of students time and again. This was the fifth year for local artist Claudia Engelbrecht, who led a workshop in the creation of 3-D self portraits- or what amounted to personal bobble-head dolls.

"I love working with these kids," she said. "I love coming up with a project that's really fun for them. I'm amazed at the variety each year."

In Engelbrecht's classroom/workshop, kids built 12-inch tall versions of themselves with bobbing faces, arms and legs . One student with bouncy curly dark hair had even attached his bobble-head's hair to the head with a spring, so it would bounce independently, mimicking his own hair.

Meanwhile, across the hall, FMS teacher/culinary master Romeo Spiniello had a room full of budding iron chefs prepare bruschetta and pizza margherita with their bare hands. "They made everything from scratch," he insisted. "From the chopping of the tomatoes, the garlic, and so on. Getting the bread ready, then baking and eating it. Now it's clean-up time."

Over in the auditorium, theater actress and educator Sharon Paige had students on stage performing scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. "There were quite a few who were definitely not as comfortable on stage and performing," she admitted. "But we did a lot of exercises beforehand that allowed them to be really silly… by the end they were all up there performing scenes."

When asked why he thought the Arts Extravaganza had become such a highly successful and anticipated part of the Farragut curriculum, Elliot laid the credit at the feet of the village of Hastings-on-Hudson.

"It's a culturally-rich town," he said. "There're a lot of people here who are artists in a variety of fields… and I think sometimes we have to remind the kids of that. This is the type of place we live in. It is a part of the cultural identity of the school."

Principal Kipper agreed. "This is a community that is so steeped in the arts that we thrive on this kind of stimulation," he said.

With school budgets being squeezed of all but the basic necessities all across the country, a purely artistic event such as the Grade Eight Arts Extravaganza may seem a luxury.

Paige, for one, does not see it that way. "It's important to get kids to read and write," she said. "But it's also important to get them to think about what it is they enjoy reading and writing about… and the arts are a fantastic way to do that."