By Caroline Sturgeon’20
Seventh grade artists showcased their work on Dec. 15 in the Arlene Schnitzer Gallery. The teachers and students put together a selection of art that they made during first semester Visual Arts 7 classes. In the past there has only been one collective showcase to display art from all middle school classes, but this year the arrangement was made to display the seventh grade art individually.
“We wanted to give the seventh graders a special show all to themselves because all seventh graders take at least a semester of art and sometimes a full year,” visual arts department head Katie Palmer said.
Over the semester the art students have been working on a combination of drawing, sculpture and painting and the foundations sketchbooks. The students have also created paper birds and other types of animals.
“My favorite part was the panting segment because it was interesting to learn a new technique and paint more realistic paintings,” Eve Levy 22‘said.
After deciding to put on a special show for the 7th graders, the teachers and students began preparing for the show as early as October.
“We discuss as a seventh grade team which projects are the most successful, and we work together to layout the gallery. We also work on the event planning aspect of the show […] the invitations, the food, music and spreading the word,” Palmer said.
The seventh grade students also wanted to be able to have a showcase for their own work.
“I think it was interesting to showcase the 7th grade art because the students are new to the school. It was good to showcase work by new students,” Mark Cho ’22 said.
The event featured self-portraits from artists Matteo Dall’Olmo ’22 and Ariana Arzabal ’22 from the painting and drawing classes taught by Claire Cochran ’06.
