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.

Miller South has artwork in new Metro Transit Transfer Station

Miller South students currently have work on display in the new South Broadway Metro Transit Station. The Akron Society of Artists organizes the station’s exhibitions and 46 Miller South students are sharing their work with the bus patrons courtesy of this local group of artists. Molly Becker, Metro’s communications liaison, held a reception for the students and their families on November 16. Congratulations to these featured artists: Nick Antenucci, McKenna Carder, Thomas Dannemiller, Javon Dunkley, Aliyah Eggleston, Stasha Gacpar, Ben Gfell, Kwamè Gomez, Joseph Gorsuch, Henry Gunther, Kelsey Hall, Claire Hallett, Vanessa Henderson, James Hilton, Chrysoula Hughes, John Iacano, Brina Jeffries, Shelia Jenkins, Waldi Johnson, Simon LaVoie, Marty Lee, Leo Lombardi, Bronson Luksza, Izzy Maguire, Lucie McCoy, Kiara Merritt, Lucien Milford, Richard Milford, Chloe Mitchell, Meile Moore, Breanna Nixon, Kade Peets, Chloe Piepho, Tess Powers, Charles Roland, Edgar Rosales, Madison Starks, Morgan Starks, Abby Sutula, Tyler Uher, Pippa Underwood, Kristofer Yarborough, Megan Zanin and Ty Zimmer.

Blockbuster mural becomes a memory

The mural that was painted several summers ago on the back of the West Market Street Blockbuster building, depicting Morgan Csejtey's Keep Akron Beautiful slogan "Akron is your canvas, paint it with trees," is fast becoming a memory. Steve Csejtey, Firestone High School art teacher and Miller South parent, the Shaughnessy family and Mrs. Yingling were instrumental in making the mural idea come to fruition. Students created tree designs and along with their teachers, friends and parents, spent multiple weekends climbing on scaffolding to paint the wall.

The Shaughnessy's secured the gallons and gallons of paint, tons of brushes, scaffolding and were the driving force to see this mural come to life. Now the building has a new occupant and the old mural is becoming a memory. To quote Mr. Csejtey, the students are learning the hard lesson of how art sometimes has "a life, and in turn a lifespan." Students are realizing how important the role of patron is and how "a piece of art, particularly a collaborative piece, no longer is in control of the person(s) who made it."

Mrs. Altwies intervened this week on behalf of the school, but the decision was made by those directly involved that the mural could not be redone as it was. Driving by the other night, I stopped and took this photo of the half painted wall.

We learned a lot in the process and I still smile as I drive past. I would laugh at the three birds painted into the upper right hand corner that appeared to sit on a telephone wire hanging in front of the wall, and how they continued to sit there long after the wire was removed. Thanks, Steve, for putting them there!

Enjoy your memories and continue to smile each time you pass the back of that building remembering what a collaboration can accomplish.

Here's a link to the original West Side Leader story: http://www.akron.com/20070809/wsl55.asp

NJAHS Elects Officers

The Miller South School National Junior Art Honor Society recently elected officers to serve during the 2009-2010 school year. Congratulations to Co-Presidents Elizabeth Garner and Joanne Lutman, Vice President Sydnie Rosenfeld, Secretary Breanna Nixon, Treasurer Samantha Sebree, Historian Tess Powers and Photographer Melanie Darrah. We're looking forward to having a productive and fun year with this group of officers leading the way. The group of seventh and eighth grade visual art students meets each Wednesday during the school year.

Soup for the City

Seventh grade art students created designs for ceramic bowls that were auctioned off during the Good Samaritan Hunger Center's Soup for the City fundraiser held October 2 at the Tangier. Attendees loved the students' bowls, spoke highly of the quality of the work, and created quite a few bidding wars during the event. Proceeds from the auction help fund the Hunger Center's programs that service the people of Akron. Students who donated bowls to the auction are Josh Ake, Kevin Billups, Mackenli Bolyard-Pizana, Ceara Casterline, Carly Chelovitz, Kacey Cousineau, Petra Djuric, Aliyah Eggleston, Nisreen Faris, Claire Hallett, Vanessa Henderson, John Iacano, Tony Maggio, Breanna Nixon, Gabe Skora, Nate Testa, Annie Tsai, Yvette Turner, Genevieve Underwood, Pippa Underwood and Maddie Yaceczko. It's an honor to have my students donate their time and talent to community service projects.