Congratulations Riverside Art Students
By Dorothy Brueck

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Ten works of art were submitted to the VSA (Very Special Arts) of Michigan in January. Seven pieces were accepted into shows. This is a huge accomplishment for these students. They competed against 178 students K-12 for only 60 spots in the exhibit.

For the Emerging Artists Tour 2008 the following students were accepted into the traveling show for Inside Out Art 2008:

Katie Wagner - Self-Portrait
Krystal Stanton - Paper Person and Self-Portrait
Cody Hooley - Sunset Landscape
Dallas Gingerich - Blue Bird

The above mentioned students exhibit will premiere at the City of Marquette Arts and Cultural Center, inside the Peter White Public Library, on February 7th to the 29th. Currently the exhibit is scheduled to be in Ann Arbor, hancock, East Lansing, Flint, Escanaba, and Petoskey. They will also compete for the National VSA in Washington DC.

Two students were accepted into the alternate traveling show. They are as follows:

Kristin Kinney - Face Colorings
Kyle Miller - Colors of Flowers

These two student works will travel to conferences such as the MAEA and MEA. They do not have a set schedule for this group. This is a new exhibit as far as I know.

The other buzz in the arts at Riverside is the upcoming annual ARTWORKS Careers Day on March 20th at Glen Oaks. We are allowed 37, 5th Grade students from Constantine out of approximately 300. They are as follows: Kellyn Barnes, Emily Connelly, Faith Corbiel, Joseph Hayes, Brian Taylor, Eli Beegle, Caleb Denman, Michael Morey, Isaac Hartley, Martin Montoya, Kristin Kinney, MaKayla Treat, Nakita Spaulding, McKenna Fox, Katie Wagner, Ashley Hamilton, Amber Chupp, Jaycie Howard, Zoe Jones, Ryanna Bailey, Lindsey Lorenz, Sommer Nichols, McKenna Bowdish, Brheea Grindstaff, Melissa McNamara, Kayla Loose, Ashley Hardesty, Amanda Barbour, Emily Elder, Rachel Ibarra, Kyleigh Bergman, Alexis Myers, Krista Comstock, Emily Weaver, Brianna Garity, Lindsay Britton, and Ben Bullock.

The ARTWORKS program began in 1990 by Marcia Balckman and Martha Starmann, art teachers in the county. The program is run by the art teachers with supports from the ISD, Lauara Howe. Students will be introduced to 4 practicing artists from around the area and from the Chicago area. Each class will have hands on activities in the Fine Arts (this includes not only visual arts, but music and theatre). Students are broken into groups with peers from other schools in the county and each will have different experiences depending on the artists they are matched. Examples of artists include the all popular horror movie make-up artists from Chicago. I think they are the students favorite. They also experience floral design, instrumental, cake decorating, clay production, watercolors, drawing, theatre, lamp work (making glass beads), weaving, etc.