POWNAL — On the evening of December 16, a very special exhibition opened at the Solomon Wright Public Library, as the holiday art projects of more than 250 Pownal Elementary School's went on public display.
"Last year, we did a mini art show here and when [Library Director Emily Gold] reached out again and asked, 'Would you like to do another one,' I decided, 'Yes, definitely," explained Pownal Elementary Art Teacher Marissa Skaczkowski. "And, because of the time of year, the theme is loosely a Whimsical Winter Wonderland."
"She's very famous at the Elementary School," laughed Gold, nodding to Skaczkowski, who laughingly added that the students at the school simply knew her as "Miss S."
The students of Pownal Elementary School represented in the Whimsical Winter Wonderland Art Exhibition are in grades K-6, Skaczkowski explained, with some grades presenting just one project for the exhibition and others presenting more than one.
"We have some collaboration projects because they are working on teamwork, and then we also have some individual projects," said Skaczkowski, beginning her tour of the exhibition.
She began with the Kindergarten class, whose projects were presented in the upper area of one of the library's front bay windows, "In Kindergarten, we just worked on the basics and made these glittery owls. Mostly it was fine motor skills. First they did the sponge painting, and then they added glue and glitter, and then they had to draw the eyes and the beak, and cut and glue them on. so it's all fine motor skills."
The First Grade students worked on fine motor skills in a similar way to create red cardinals, which decorated the door frames and window frames throughout the library space.
The First Grade students also used a product called Model Magic to construct a celebration of polar bears. Each polar bear was unique and in a different pose. Some seemed to be rolling around, possibly enjoying their snowy environment. Others were standing up or sitting down – and a couple looked as though they might have been making snow angels. Their little faces and even their paws and hearts were painted on and, together, the group of them were making merry for the upcoming holiday season.
"Again, they were building fine motor skills, building those hand muscles and creating these cute little polar bears, which are adorable," said Skaczkowski. "Then, for our Second Grade, they had a little bit more of an in-depth art project where they had to make a pinch pot."
Skaczkowski walked to two other locations in the library where the Second Grade students had their pinch pot projects on display.
Again, there was a great deal of individualism in the projects, with many of the students adding elements to their pinch pots that were beyond the initial scope of the lesson. Some had turned them into little bird's nests. Others had turned them into silly monsters or mythical creatures. And others still had created little mugs of hot cocoa, a snail, a flower, and what appeared to be a bowl full of noodles.
"Then, we talked about still life [artwork] – and they were asked to draw a still life of their pinch pots," explained Skaczkowski, indicating the illustrations that sat behind each pinch pot.
"But, for Third Grade, we really needed to work on working as a team in collaboration. So, I put them in groups and I gave them a template – a blank house – and they had to come up with a theme for their house. Each group decorated their house, and they're scattered around here in the library. Fourth Grade did something similar, but they had a tree stencil, which wasn't as complicated – but they did do two projects."
The collaborative houses and trees were constructed as mixed media projects – and the sky was the limit as far as creativity went, "They used paint sticks, oil pastels, Sharpies, markers – all different materials. They were allowed to go and grab and create what they would like," clarified Skaczkowski, adding that students had been using oil pastels since Kindergarten, and were quite familiar with them.
The second project constructed by the Fourth Grade students was a collection of stunning bird house collages made out of scrap paper, crayons, and oil pastels. They were not for the cardinals, clarified a Fourth Grader present for the opening – but they were for other birds.
"The Fifth Grade also did two things," said Skaczkowski. "They were practicing following [directions], how to draw step by step. We made these foxes with scarves. We also made little flower pots and then they had to decorate them with tissue. This tissue is stuck on with glue. And, we learned how to make a rose with Model Magic and then piece it all together – kind of like a mixed media sculpture project. Some of them added some sparkly snow, which I think is nice."
Looking at the display of foxes with scarves, it was clear that a few of them stood out as very different from the others. One was actually a moose. Two others were foxes meeting, but they did not follow the stylized fox creations of the others. Another was similar, but was just a single fox – doing his own thing.
"Yes," confirmed Skaczkowski. "So, I have some students who – when they're like, 'But I really would like to do this,' or 'I have my own idea,' I don't like to shut that down because they're excited about it. And, if they are practicing their drawing skills and making something that's on theme, I don't say no. I let them kind of work with their ideas that they're so excited about. So, the ones that are different are those students."
"And, the Sixth Grade, had an individual project and a group project. They made these birch trees – the group project, where they water-colored them, and then I taught them how to drag [the color]. The individual project was this 'mini art.'"
The tall birch trees hosted some of the cardinals from the First Graders, and the mini art projects were tiny paintings with a holiday theme.
As many of the Pownal Elementary School students had varying understandings of what an art show might entail, Skaczkowski began with a basic introduction and broadened the learning from there. She started with explaining what it meant for their art to be on view by the public.
"Last week, we even explored Google Maps and the pictures online to really understand where the art was going," said Skaczkowski. "A lot of them were like, 'Oh, I know that place,' or 'I go there.' I had a kindergartener with the pictures up pointing out, 'Over here is where the grown up books are, and this is the children's section, and I live right down the road.' Other students were familiar [with the area]."
Director Gold, who was hosting the event, invited guests to create an ornament for the library's holiday tree before leaving.
"It's always nice to have people here – it's very joyful," she said. "I'm always happy to have the school here and to be collaborating with our community partners, and especially being able to invite our families and kids in here to have their show. It's such a colorful, joyful show, and I just love having it here."
The art from the students is indeed very colorful. It is also numerous and diverse, and distributed throughout the space of the Solomon Wright Public Library.
The Whimsical Winter Wonderland Pownal Elementary Art Exhibition will be open to the public through much of January, said Gold, who welcomes families, neighbors, and the greater community to come and explore the "lively show of two and three-dimensional art" at the library.
More information can be found at solomonwrightpubliclibrary.org.