Art Booster Picnic at Furnace Run

Some of the edible sculptures!

Thanks to Lisa and Steve Testa for organizing a fabulously fun Kick Off Picnic for all the art student and their families at Furnace Run Park in Richfield. Those who ventured north enjoyed great food and friendly rapport and the weather allowed everyone to enjoy all the park had to offer. Both old and new students enjoyed the many ice-breaking activities organized by Mr. Testa. New friendships were forged and a great spirit of excitement and anticipation for the upcoming school year was felt in the air!



The six groups who competed in the Human Sculpture contest! Evolution (above) received top "honors" for their conceptual depiction of the history of man.

Akrona exhibit a success!

The Akrona Galleries on West Market Street in Akron recently hosted the annual Miller South spring art show. Five hundred people enjoyed the artwork, light refreshments and music during the artists' reception held on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Each visual art student had work included in the exhibit of approximately 300 pieces of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional work.


A special thanks is extended to gallery owner Darlene VerSluys and parents Amy Garner and Michelle Nusbaum for coordinating the volunteers, basket raffle and refreshments. Thanks is also extended to all the parents who so graciously volunteered their time to make the event so special! The event was sponsored by the Miller South Art Booster Club.

Miller South staff visits Cleveland Museum of Art

During our June work week, the Miller South staff participated in several workshops at the Cleveland Museum of Art geared to enhance and support the staff's arts integrated teaching.





Here are white-gloved teachers, Mrs. Wachter, Mr. Langreder and Mrs. Ward, carefully examining museum artifacts during the Distance Learning presentation.

Art in Business

A big thanks to this year’s Miller South School Art in Business sponsors! Many Miller South visual art students will be awarded $100 U.S. Savings Bonds during the May 14 reception and awards ceremony held in the Emily Davis Gallery in Folk Hall on the campus of the University of Akron. Supporting Miller South artists this year are sponsors Patti Tschantz; Peters, Tschantz and Associates; Julie Gorsuch; FedEx Custom Critical; Summit County Juvenile Court, Robert A Bickett, Court Administrator (2 students); The Charles Parsons Group; Alyce Altwies; the Akron Public Schools Fine Arts Department; Paul McCoy and North Pak Container; Dr. Sue Long; Summit Education Initiative; Bonnie Wachter; Children’s Hospital Medical Center; and Debbie Trager. Students whose work was chosen are Joseph Gorsuch, Cassie Laughlin, Genevieve Underwood, Drew Robinson, Kade Peets, Charlie Parsons, Rammi Qaqish, Hae-In Kim, Lucie McCoy, Petra Djuric, Bronson Luksza, Solomon St., Clair, Erica Kraus, Jovan Dunkley and Kelsey Hall. Sponsors will receive the student's work professionally framed by Tomorrow's Treasures, who have supported the program since its inception in the spring of 1993.

Art in the Middle exhibit at Library

Congratulations to these Miller South students who will have work on display in the downtown Akron Summit County Library during the month of March: Chloe Piepho, Abbey Sutula, Valerie Plumley, Erica Kraus (2 pieces), Madison Starks, Lucia Obeius, Kevin Staley, Hugo Christensen-Diehl, Larry Swoope, Erin Siegferth, Maggie Dempster, Henry Gunther, Genna Hailey, Marty Lee and Elizabeth Garner. The Art in the Middle exhibit features artwork from students in all the Akron Public Schools’ Middle Schools.

Family Awareness Winners!

Congratulations to fifth grade art student, Allison Simon, who won the Grand Prize honor in this year's Summit County Children Services Board A Family is. . . poster and slogan contest with her winning slogan of A Family is the Spice of Life. Allison will be recognized at the March 22 Board of Education meeting.

Congratulations is also extended to Miller South students, Katie Cox, Natalie Barone, Jessica Wong, Jordyn Rohm and Frances Kapper, who received five of the Children's Services Board’s ten Honorable Mention awards. All six young ladies will be taping segments on WBNX television station as part of Family Awareness Month.

An Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, March 27 at the Akron Art Museum recognizing all the student winners. Last year's grand prize winner, Miller South sixth grade student, Solomon St. Clair, will also be recognized for his slogan, A Family is the Frosting on the Cupcake of Life, currently seen on all this year's promotional literature.

North East Central Ohio Scholastic Art Awards

NECO Scholastic Art competition

Artwork was submitted from middle and high school art teachers throughout Stark, Summit, Portage, Medina, Wayne and Tuscarawas counties for consideration in the 2010 North East Central Ohio Scholastic Art competition. The judges boiled down 194 excellent portfolio entries to 23 gold winners and looked at three thousand individual entries awarding 297 silver and gold key winners. The exhibition of all silver key, gold key and portfolio winners will be on display January 19 through February 4 in the Campus Center and the Fine Arts Building at the Stark County campus of Kent State University.

The awards ceremony will begin promptly at 10:00 am on Saturday, January 23 in the Conference Center on the KSU Stark Campus.

Each middle school art teacher could submit 25 pieces of artwork. Miller South students fared well in the competition receiving eleven Honorable Mention awards, nine Silver Keys and twenty-two Gold Keys. Congratulations to these students receiving recognition:

Seventh grade students:

McKenna Carder: Silver Key

Carly Chelovitz: Gold Key

Melanie Darrah: Honorable Mention, Gold Key

Erica Kraus: 2 Honorable Mention awards

Isabella Maguire: Silver Key

Lucien Milford: Gold Key

Tess Powers: Silver Key

Erin Siegferth: Honorable Mention

Madison Starks: Silver Key

Abbey Sutula: Honorable Mention

Annie Tsai: Gold Key

Eighth grade students:

Nick Antenucci: Honorable Mention

Aaron Byrd: Silver Key

Maggie Dempster: Honorable Mention

Jihad Dennis: Gold Key

Grant Foster-Davis: Gold Key

Elizabeth Garner: Honorable Mention, Silver Key

Ben Gfell: Silver Key, Gold Key

Noah Gfell: Gold Key

Henry Gunther: Honorable Mention

Genna Hailey: Honorable Mention

Shelia Jenkins: Gold Key

Marty Lee: Honorable Mention, Silver Key and Gold Key

Joanne Lutman: Gold Key

Demetrius McGhee: Gold Key

Richard Milford: 3 Gold Keys

Samantha Sebree: Gold Key

Kevin Staley: Silver Key

Matt Wilson: Gold Key

Ashton Wood: Gold Key

Megan Zanin: 4 Gold Keys

NJAHS to sell buttons

National Junior Art Honor Society members have been designing and assembling buttons to sell to the school. The unique buttons will sell for $1.00 each and be available during lunch the week prior to Valentine's Day. There are lots of new designs this year!

First Night Black Light Art Exhibit

Photos top to bottom:

• Miller South area of the black light exhibit

• Henry Gunther, Breanna Nixon, Michael Gunther and Mrs. Yingling inside Soppeland’s monster sea creature

• Breanna Nixon cheering for Akron in one of the photo op windows

University of Akron Art Professor, Mark Soppeland, again hosted a fun international black light art exhibit in Summit ArtSpace during Akron's First Night celebration. Students in Mrs. Yingling's visual art interest area classes and her sixth grade exploratory class participated in the exhibit by creating black light paintings depicting their interpretations of this year's theme - Creatures of the Midnight Sun. Students looked at historical "creature" references and mythological creatures studying their characteristics and features. The exhibition room was lit solely by black lights giving each painting, drawing and collage a totally new color scheme. By midnight, the room was nearly filled with artwork created by First Night visitors. Each student received a voucher for a First Night admission button that allowed them entry into all the Akron venues.