Don't miss this event May 8 at Ansonia High School

Arts celebration to showcase work of Valley students

Logo created by Ansonia High School senior Taylor Madore

By Patricia Villers, New Haven Register

Posted: 04/07/14, 7:30 PM EDT
 

ANSONIA >> Showcasing the talents of area high school students is the goal of the Valley Celebration of the Arts at Ansonia High School.
Students and teachers from Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton and Woodland High School in Beacon Falls are collaborating on the May 8 project, art teacher Nancy Bennett-Morgenstern said Monday.
Bennett-Morgenstern has wanted to hold a celebration for several years, she said during an interview in the school atrium.
“I’m so excited to use this space,” she said. “It’s truly one of the nicest (school) spaces I’ve ever seen.”
The program will run 6-8 p.m. In the first hour, there will be a concert by the new Valley Honors Choir, made up of students selected from each of the six schools.
Seymour High School music teacher Brandt Schneider is coordinating the performance.
Cory Ganschow, assistant professor of music and music education at Western Connecticut State University, will conduct the choir.
A juried art show will follow in the atrium. Teachers will select eight pieces of work from each school, each piece by a different student.
Bennett-Morgenstern said culinary arts also are on the menu. Ansonia High School students will prepare and serve refreshments after the concert as people look at the artwork.
Ansonia technical education students are constructing display stands for the art, she said.
Ansonia and Derby youth services are sponsoring the celebration. Ansonia Youth Services Bureau Director Robert Lisi said he and his Derby counterpart, John Saccu, are planning the event, with the support of youth services funds.
Lisi, former principal of Ansonia High School, said he has seen his city’s artists and musicians and he is sure students in the other Valley towns are just as talented.
“We’re excited about this,” Lisi said. “We just want people out there to see what our kids have to offer.”
Valley Arts Council President Rich DiCarlo said the group aims to make sure the arts are recognized, valued and promoted.
“What’s great here is that the high school teachers have recognized the effect that the arts have on the minds of kids and how it enriches their lives,” DiCarlo said. “We wholeheartedly support this endeavor.”
DiCarlo will put some council members’ work on display and he plans to demonstrate portrait painting during the event. He said he will use acrylic on wood to show students they don’t have to buy canvases on which to paint.
“Perhaps (the celebration) will inspire kids to pick up a brush, or a camera, and express themselves,” he said.
Making art “helps promote creative thinking,” DiCarlo said. “Problems are solved with outside-the-box thinking.”


I'm looking forward to seeing the talent that will be display at this celebration.