Bringing the Spring Arts Festival to Life
This spring, Blue School hosted its first school-wide Spring Arts Festival, a week-long celebration of the expressive arts that showcased student work in many different forms. Galleries of student artwork popped up all over the building; music and dance performances took place outside before drop-off and after dismissal; there were interactive multimedia displays set up for families and students to explore; and, on Thursday afternoon the whole school came together to create a live sound score the picture book The Lion and the Bird. It was a joyful weeklong celebration that was inclusive, student-centered, poignant, and beautiful.
This video gives an incomplete sense of the work happening during the festival:
Middle School Music Teacher, Keith Witty; Pre-Primary Studio Arts Specialist, Mollie McQuarrie; and Primary Studio Arts Specialist, Caroline McAuliffe all helped imagine what a school-wide Spring Arts Festival could be, and with the support and collaboration of many fellow teachers and administrators, bring their vision to life!
Here, they reflect on the experience of putting together this year’s Spring Arts Festival:
“Previously, Spring Arts Festival (SAF) existed as an exposè in Primary. Expanding it to include the whole school and to make it last a whole week felt like a great way to help people see how rich our arts curriculum is and to let teachers cross collaborate”, Mollie said.
Keith said, “When the school moved back into one building, I was excited to think about how we could build out SAF into a longer and bigger celebration of art and expressive culture. Kids create fabulous work by nature (under the guidance of fabulous educators, of course)… but they often need to learn how to organize and present it, to grow comfortable with that process.”
The work students developed for the SAF was far-ranging and, in many cases, emerged in several phases over time. For example Kindergarten students presented a puppet show, which was the result of a many layered study. Caroline reflects, “Kindergarteners were in on-going conversations, collaborations, and worked on compromises to create their backdrops, their puppet characters, and co-write stories together. As their stories developed, children created a wide range of animal, human, and even computer characters for their puppet theater. Kindergartners made articulated puppets with recycled coffee stirrers and brass fasteners. Children’s stories became scripts for their puppets. The idea of having a performance grew over time, first with signs for the audience members, then the need for a narrator, and a place to house their puppet plays.”
When thinking about what elements of the SAF felt especially specific to Blue School, Mollie reflected, “The combined beauty and imperfection of the whole event. The expectation that we strive to make things unusual, incredible and beautiful but that we are ok when things are imperfect is very Blue School in my mind. Polished “art shows” in schools tend to feel very adult driven. I like that we share work in a way that is honest; that celebrates the students, their differences, that their work isn’t always “done” and isn’t always in line with adult expectations. I also liked that SAF included works in process as well as completed work. Our art program honors process as the place where learning happens. Products are just the end result of the learning.” Keith adds, “As an institution founded by creative and experimental performing artists, I think it’s essential that we uphold that legacy via fearless and inspired expressive output.”
Almost everyone who experienced the live sound score to The Lion and the Bird agrees it was a highlight of the festival. Megan Moncrief, Primary Music Teacher, played a huge role in envisioning and bringing to life the sound score experience. Keith reflects, “I especially loved collaborating with Megan on the sound score project. It was so fun to walk into the music room and hear her exploring the sonorities of the book with Primary students, knowing that all the work I was doing with Middle School students would be melding together with them to create something exponentially more beautiful than any of its individual parts.”
On the Wednesday evening of the Spring Arts Festival, parents were here for Back to Blue, a spring celebration that included guided tours of the student art galleries throughout the building. Many teachers expressed showcasing the work for parents as another highlight of the week. “Being able to share the incredible work we are doing with their children made me realize how we take for granted the free flow of parents in school buildings and how much we need their audience to make our work as educators meaningful,” Mollie said.
