Springfield ended its first semester with a district-wide art show featuring high school and middle school bands, and an art exhibition in the high school’s main lobby. Here are some brief recaps of several group’s accomplishments and featured work.
Performing Arts at the High School
Band director Mr. Gottesman explains the rehearsal process for symphonic band: most of the time spent practicing is during curricular every-other-day classes. Because the band ensemble is large, it’s split into two sections (or classes), which means “[they] only get together for one or two combined rehearsals as the concert approaches.”
The jazz band, pep band, A capella group, Spartan Songbirds (the all-female singing group), and Spartan Singers (the all-male singing group) all meet weekly either after school or during lunch and Learn. The musicians’ rehearsals are comprised of run-throughs, adjustments, and–most of all–practicing until they have their compositions mastered.
In terms of the band’s community, sophomore Jordana Albanese says, “The people in band are genuinely some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.” She goes on to discuss how nice it is to have a welcoming community with a “common interest.”
Mr. Gottesman elaborates on this “common interest” aspect of the band community: “It’s kind of a nice metaphor for life. You have people of very high level working with people who are much less experienced, and we’re working together to make something great.”
He extends an invitation to “any students who… didn’t get the experience that they deserved during Covid” and encourages them to join a music club.
With the start of the second semester, an entirely new set of songs will be introduced to the musicians in preparation for the Spring Concert, which will be held on May 15.
“Patterns of Excellence” Art Show
The second annual K-12 district art show theme was “Patterns of Excellence,” which worked to highlight how the district “weaves patterns” across all four schools to connect students’ artistic journeys. Each school is allotted 30 pieces to contribute to the show
–with the elementary schools taking extra time to incorporate the theme into their curriculums.
According to Mrs. Greenawalt, this tradition began as a way to “celebrate students.” This year’s broad theme ensured a wide variety of mediums could be used in each piece, which helped to “honor all types of disciplines and students.”
This was especially the case in the high school, where art courses presented projects that aligned with the theme, such as blind-contour line drawings and texture-dependent “memory projects.” Additionally, the diversity of Springfield’s art electives gave way to multi-disciplinary pieces like tapestries, ceramics, paintings, and drawings.
Overall, Mrs. Greenawalt said this was a great
opportunity for the district art department to “meet [their] goal of collaboration and consistency” across the four schools. She discussed the idea of building and elaborating on artistic principles as students progress in the district, which became more seamless during their organization of the exhibition.
Junior Emily Butz, who has taken three art electives at Springfield, attests to the district’s ability to teach art: “Art can be a very vulnerable thing because you’re putting yourself and your ideas out there. Having such supportive… mentors… has helped me pursue artwork I didn’t think I could create.”
Just like the band, Springfield’s art department will have another showing students and families can look forward to in the spring!
