Student Artists To Shine at Guild Hall

[caption id="attachment_59019" align="alignnone" width="800"] Work from last year's student arts festival at Guild Hall in East Hampton.[/caption]

By Annnette Hinkle

It’s that time of year again. Beginning this week, the gallery spaces at Guild Hall will become a riot of color and texture as schools across the East End submit work showing off the considerable talents of their young charges.

It’s all part of Guild Hall’s annual Student Arts Festival. This is the 25th year for the festival, which brings together artwork by some 3,500 kids from Bridgehampton to Montauk and shows it in one place. That’s a lot of kids and a lot of work, which means every square inch of gallery space at Guild Hall is utilized to highlight the art.

What a great way to brighten up the gray days of winter.

The show is broken up into two parts, with the younger students displaying their work first, followed by an exhibit of high school art. Part I of the festival, featuring grades K to 8, opens this Saturday, January 14 with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. and remains on view through February 12.

Then it will be the high school students turn. Part II of the festival, grades 9 to 12, will be on view from February 25 to March 26 with the opening reception on Saturday, March 4 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Stephanie Miller is Guild Hall’s Curatorial Assistant and Education Associate and she’s largely responsible for coordinating the student work as it comes in — as well as finding the space to display it.

“I couldn’t believe the volume of work that came in last year. From floor to ceiling, every inch of wall was covered and it was extending into the hallway,” explains Ms. Miller. “We have a fantastic team of installers on ladders with push pins putting everything up.”

“We decide where to place things so they compliment each other, so there’s not too much of one color in a row,” she adds. “We put bolder things farther away, make territorial decisions and just go for it.”

As Ms. Miller notes, part of the challenge is that, until it actually arrives at Guild Hall, she’s never exactly sure what kind of work she’ll be getting from the schools.

“It’s usually a surprise when it gets here,” says Ms. Miller. “It’s exciting and special for us. This has been going on for 25 years.”

The nature of art education in public schools has changed greatly over that quarter of a century. Now, with Common Core in place, Ms. Miller is finding the artwork often ties in with other disciplines that children are studying in the classroom, particularly history.

“In terms of artwork, usually the teachers pull from their curriculum and based on what I’ve seen in the past, they approach it with different themes. We’ll get art that relates to Aztec ruins, or sculptures relating to objects found in nature,” she says. “It pulls from art history, different cultures and ethnicity. It’s very much cross-cultural. Last year Montauk School submitted a totem pole made from little shells found on the beach.”

This is Ms. Miller’s second year coordinating the Student Art Exhibit and she has been impressed with the quality of the submissions.

“It’s really great and so much fun to see what they’re doing and how the teachers are so creative and come up with so many ideas,” she adds. “There are a lot of students out there with artistic talent. The nice thing is that at the younger age, whether they’re going to pursue art or not, they all participate.

“It’s really sweet to see art from the young ones — it’s visceral and pure and unadulterated.”

Ms. Miller also loves to bear witness to the moment when a young student comes to Guild Hall and finds his or her own piece of artwork in the gallery.

“Last year, we had the CDCH kids participate. When a little boy found his piece, he showed his parents and they took his picture in front of it,” says Ms. Miller.

While the galleries will be the main focus of the action during the opening reception this Saturday, there will also be performances in the John Drew Theater featuring kids as well. After all, art is not just about what hangs on the wall — music, theater and dance are all fair game, as is film, which is also a part of the festival.

[caption id="attachment_59018" align="alignnone" width="800"] A piece from last year's student art show.[/caption]

Jen Brondo is the general manager of the John Drew Theater and the Associate for Theater Education. She coordinates the performance aspect of the festival, lining up student performers to take the stage, as well as the upcoming film contest.

Some of the acts audience members can expect to see on Saturday include “The High Notes,” a choral group made of fifth and sixth graders from Montauk, a group of singing home schoolers, and a dance performance by members of the Hampton Ballet Theater School.

At the reception for the high school arts festival on March 4, Ms. Brondo expects performances by the East Hampton High School dance team as well as the Bridgehampton marimba band.

But she encourages any student with an interest in performing to take the stage — they don’t have to be affiliated with a school group or a teacher to share their talents.

“We have professional lighting and the whole sound system. Usually there are 75 to 100 people in the audience,” she says. “What do you got for me? Come on in.”

The other aspect of the festival is the upcoming film contest.

“It’s open to kids whether they are making a film through school or independently,” says Ms. Brondo. “Usually we get 25 to 30 films submitted. The due date is in February.”

This is the 14th year for the student film festival and local judges, including representatives from the Hamptons International Film Festival, watch the films and award prizes in three groups — grades 2 to 4, grades 5 to 8 and grades 9 to 12, with three winners in each category.

“On March 26, we’ll do an awards ceremony and screen all nine films in the theater, plus give out prizes and certificates,” explains Ms. Brondo.

In addition, during the high school student arts festival all submitted films will be shown on a loop on a television set in the gallery. The films for the younger grades should be under 10 minutes. High school students are invited to submit films up to 20 minutes long.

“The subject matter is wide ranging from year to year, and the quality has gone up,” says Ms. Brondo. “Springs and Hayground, those are the schools who have real film programs. I’ve been doing this personally for seven years, and I’ve seen a lot more kids making films on their own outside of school.”

“Now they can do it on their iPhones.”

Guild Hall’s 25th Annual Student Art Festival, Part I, Grades K-8, opens on Saturday, January 14 from 2 to 4 p.m. During the reception, free children’s art workshops will be offered in the education center. The exhibit runs through Sunday, February 12 and includes work by students from schools in East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Bridgehampton, Montauk, Amagansett, Springs, Wainscott and Sagaponack. Home school students will also have work in the show.

Part II of the exhibition highlighting art by students in grades 9 to 12 will be on view from Saturday, February 25 to Sunday, March 26. The opening reception will be Saturday, March 4 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Guild Hall is located at 158 Main Street, East Hampton. For more information call (631) 324-0806.