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Visit Shorecrest and discover your Spark

Celebrate the Arts 2016

Source/Author: Raffi Darrow, Ebytes Editor

April 15, 2016

Upper School News

Celebrate the Arts Week is a decades-old Shorecrest tradition that showcases the school’s commitment to and value of visual, performing and literary arts. The week of events and activities provides an opportunity for students not only to connect with each other, but also to meet and learn from professional artists from the St. Petersburg, FL community. Each spring, students, teachers, staff and parents share their love for the arts, embrace individual creativity, and enjoy the artistic achievements of Shorecrest students, from preschool to 12th grade.

Celebrate the Arts 2016 featured art displays all around campus. Shorecrest students and families enjoyed a student film festival and juried art show in the Upper School, rock band performances by Middle and Upper School students, chalk drawings in Middle School, a performance for parents and friends by students in The Experiential School and Lower School, and a community artist teach-in for in Alpha through 8th grade classrooms.

The kindergarten through fourth grade Lower School kicked off Celebrate the Arts week with a mini performance by the cast of "Phantom of the Opera." Fourth grade students then had a special lesson with the Celebrate the Arts Artist-in-Residence Mark Gonzalez. Lower School students also took the time for a thirty-minute tour of all the visual art on display around campus in Alpha - Grade 12. Kindergarten students showed off their hard work with a Quilt Walk, putting each student’s hand-made quilt on display.

Thirty-seven visiting Artists shared their talents in Middle School on Wednesday and Lower School on Friday for our Community Artists Teach-In. Students were treated to two, forty-minute sessions with two different artists.

New for 2016 is Artful Evening on Friday, April 15 from 4:30-6:30pm. Artists from the Lower and Middle School teach-in will exhibit and sell their original artwork at an outdoor festival-style showcase prior to the Friday performance of "Phantom of the Opera." Enjoy food offerings from Jimmy's Slider Truck and art activities for children while meeting the artists who donated their time to Shorecrest. Artful Evening will be held in the Faculty Garden outside of the Janet Root Theatre.

The final performance of “The Phantom of the Opera,” the Upper School spring musical and crowning event of Celebrate the Arts, is on Saturday, April 16 at 7pm. Though the official week is over, students will continue to engage in community art activities with trips to American Stage, Morean Center for Clay, The Dali Museum, Architectural Tour and a Mural Walk, among other field trips, over the next few weeks.

Featured in the Janet Root Theatre gallery from now until June 3 is the stunning exhibit of FloraDalí - Les Fruits on loan from The Salvador Dalí Museum.

Why Celebrate the Arts?

The arts have always been an integral part of the Shorecrest experience. When so many schools are cutting back on or even eliminating the arts from their curricula, Shorecrest continues to emphasize the value of art education, in all its forms.

Introducing art, music and literature in the early childhood years can help foster a positive attitude toward learning and curiosity. These disciplines are vehicles for exploration and discovery that build imagination and stimulate intellectual curiosity. Brain research and studies of cognitive development have shown that involvement in the arts can be associated with gains in math, reading, and verbal skills and can also help develop and improve critical thinking, motivation and concentration. When the arts are integrated into other curricular areas, they can help children understand other subjects as well as enrich the school experience. Art, music and writing can help children connect with others and see the world differently. It is also through the arts that children can often express their feelings and emotions in ways that they feel safe.
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Thank you so much to our detailed Celebrate the Arts organizer and volunteer, Gina White. Thank you to Molly Davis for helping set up Artful Evening on campus to highlight our visiting artists. Numerous Charger parents assisted as artists and hosts, and we thank them for their time, talents and smiles. Thanks also to our stealth photographers who captured memories for all of us, including Leslie Mathews, Muirelle Montecalvo, Jenna Cibran, Mary Heckert, Corrie Stover, eighth grader Kanaley C., seventh grader Shannon R. and SCA volunteer coordinator Zeina Kropf.