Latest news with #FineArtsFestival
Chicago Tribune
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
From paintings to music, festival in Aurora puts spotlight on student art
Students' artistic efforts were on full display Saturday at West Aurora High School as School District 129 offered its 17th annual Fine Arts Festival. The free event that was open to the public benefits West Aurora High School's Patrons of the Performing Arts, a nonprofit group which supports music and theater programs at the school. The program was again overseen and organized by West Aurora School District K-12 Fine Arts Curriculum Coordinator Jonathan McLear, who said he has been involved with the program the past 14 years. 'This is our 17th year and it brings student musicians and artists from all of our buildings including elementary, middle school and high school,' he said. 'Everybody gets to see their artwork and take a look at what other levels at other schools are doing.' A large number of students throughout the district were set to participate, 'either singing or playing in a band or have their artwork up,' McLear said a few days before the event. 'Just in our elementary schools alone, we're probably looking at 1,500 elementary kids who have artwork on display or are in a music choir or recorder ensemble,' he said. McLear said there are plenty of works entered for the event. 'Sometimes, it's the teachers selecting the work. Other times, students may ask that their work be entered,' McLear said. 'Every teacher does it a little bit differently, but our art teachers try to show as many as possible.' Regarding performing artists, McLear said that every elementary school 'has one music group that performs, while our middle schools have choirs and bands that are preforming as well as high school jazz bands and concert ensembles performing.' 'I think that one of the neat things we do is our seventh grade bands play alongside our top high school bands, so they are all together in the gym, and the seventh-graders get to experience what it's like sitting alongside kids who have played for seven or eight years,' he said. McLear said that 'one of the best experiences for our younger students is to see the opportunities and continue working on their art.' 'They get to see the progression from middle school and high school. And it's also a great opportunity – a lot of our high school students love this day because they get to relive their past with either old art and music teachers and look at where they came from,' McLear said. 'As far as art classes and supporting the arts, this showcases the level of support District 129 provides to the fine arts and we want to keep it going strong.' Billy and Hannah Vanduzor of North Aurora were among the crowds packing the hallways Saturday at the festival and enjoying the work of their daughter and other students. 'My daughter Nora has art and is performing in her choir,' Hannah Vanduzor said. 'My daughter did a splatter painting using watercolor. We came the past two years and it's a pretty neat event and each year her work is in a frame and hung up in our loft. I just think it's very important to show the various levels of art – you have paintings, ceramics, music. It's really important.' Billy Vanduzor said he 'was pretty creative as a kid and was involved in music.' 'I was a student here at West High so this is a do-over for me,' he said. 'I think this is amazing that they bring kids from every school from the whole district and it's fun to see how inclusive the whole thing is.' Mike Leverence, an art educator at Freeman Elementary School, said the festival is 'an amazing event.' 'We're all excited to show what our students can do – their creative talents – and it's great to meet family and have everybody come in and celebrate what their children are able to do,' he said. 'We can go and listen to students sing and hear the band and see their artistic skills as well. Arts are important and it's the thing that gets kids to come to school some days. It shouldn't be an afterthought.' Leah Lichy of North Aurora, along with her husband Paul and son Kooper, 7, said this was their first year at the festival and that their fourth-grade daughter Ireland 'was playing the recorder' at the event. 'It's kind of cool to see everything in the same place and be around all the kids,' Leah Lichy said.
Khaleej Times
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
UAE: Meet 6-year-old artist who 'doesn't know fear', youngest at RAK Arts Festival 2025
When Nithya Saathvika Samavedam and her father submitted their art proposals to showcase at the Ras Al Khaimah Art Festival, their family was expecting the architect by trade to be accepted. To everyone's surprise, only one was chosen, and it was not the professional artist - it was their six-year-old daughter. Nithya's artwork was selected as part of the Student Category for the 13th edition of the RAK Arts Festival 2025, which is open to current students in grades K-12. According to festival organisers, the grade 1 student was the youngest artist to have her work exhibited this year. Nithya's twin brother, Arjun, also applied for the festival along with his sister and father. Though his interest lies more in sports activities such as cricket, he occasionally would sit with his twin sister and let his creativity flow. Nithya's process involves doing multiple works with different colors, her father, Krishna Kanth, told Khaleej Times, 'All these colors are coming from her memory. Then I realised that this particular series of work relates more to this year's [festival] theme memory. How it began Nithya's passion for the arts arose when she first put pen to paper at just two years old and began drawing anything that she could think of — houses, owls, trees, and even portraits of people. Starting with watercolors because of their versatility, Nithya later explored other artistic mediums, such as crayons, pencils, and acrylic paints. When the twins were younger, their house walls were their canvas. 'We dedicated our whole house walls to them,' Krishna said. 'That's the best canvas, because they still haven't developed any sense of where not to paint on.' Krishna added that when he was younger, he never got that kind of exposure to the arts. He said that especially since he is from India, where it is expected for most people to be a doctor or an engineer, that kind of exposure is not common. With arts, he continued, 'you develop a taste for life and everything, a taste in everything and only that comes when you learn art. At least there's an understanding. I don't know if she'll be an artist later or not. But she'll have to get that exposure now. Then she'll make an educated guess.' 'Knows no fear' Nithya also 'doesn't know fear,' according to Krishna, when it comes to choosing and painting on a canvas. Her father recalled a time when the security guard of their building was throwing out a white cardboard box, but Nithya stopped him because she saw potential in using that as her next painting. Nithya's family almost missed a milestone in her artistic journey. When she submitted her artwork to the RAK Fine Arts Festival, they were unaware that it had been accepted. They overlooked the email confirming her selection, and it wasn't until months later after traveling to India in the summer that they received a call asking why they hadn't responded. Only then did they realise the news they had nearly missed: Nithya's painting had been chosen for the festival. Her father, overcome with joy, couldn't believe that his daughter's creativity had earned her a spot among other young and talented artists. Nithya's mother, Kathyayani said, 'It's a great feeling. If that can motivate her to do more, I'll be more than happy.'
