The Elder Art Department unveiled a new yearly tradition on Sunday October 30th. This new tradition was the Elder Grade School Invitational Art Show. This show brought many families to Elder this past weekend to help celebrate the hard work and skill that the grade school artists have put into their pieces.
Elder invited many grade school artists to give them the opportunity to show their work in an art show setting. The artists that showed up were able to have Elder AP Art students walk them around the show and show them what they have made with the help of the Elder Art Department. The students that arrived at Elder were given their own Elder sketchbooks as a reward for the work that they had put into their pieces.
Students who had pieces in the show were judged and were rewarded with scholarship money for the grade school admissions if they won one of the awards. The student who one the most a mount of scholarship money was, Woody J. Hinton IV, a seventh grader from St. Antonius. He won with his watercolor and oil pastel astronaut piece named “Into the Portal”. Woody won overall in the show and was given the reward that he deserves.
The main financial supporters of the art show were Kim and Marian Knoppe. The Knoppe’s support of this art show helped express the gratitude the Elder community has for grade school, and high school artists who are trying to improve in their skill set.
The show was directed by Elder art teachers, Murry Dwertman and James Doerflein. The leadership provided by the teachers created a great environment for the grade school artists that have never been in an art show before, by having the guidance by the AP art students and by having teachers from their grade schools be there to support their work in the show. The organization provided by the teachers showed how strong the Elder Art Department is when it comes to supporting the community.
Elder High School’s Principle, Kurt Ruffing, held the opening speech for the award ceremony that followed the open floor portion of the show. He expressed how Elder wanted to celebrate grade school artists who decided to be a part of the show.
Elder High School’s Director of Administration, Brian Hiles, helped invite the schools and artists to the show. He was one of the main reasons the show was possible due to his ability to spread the word about this event.
Overall the event was a terrific start for the growth of appreciation for grade school artists with the new event added to Elder’s calendar each year.
