Fauquier County Arts Festival

The Fauquier County Arts Festival was April 16th and 17th this year. The week before the 4th grade music performance and the same weekend as the VA Sports Complex Frozen Ropes Baseball tournament in Ruthgers Glen, VA - outside of Richmond. Needless to say I was a little stressed and very busy!

I had a parent helper create my invitations that tell the students which of their artwork was selected. This is a big step for me - I usually do everything myself and I am proud to have made this small step in delegating and asking for help. So the rest - selecting the work, mounting the work, labeling the work, displaying the work - was all that was left for me :-) It was a great success and I wish I had gotten more pics of the display! Here is the poster that was created by a Kettle Run High school design student. Loved it! The theme this year was Art & Soul.

I had a lot of students, parents and fellow teachers come to visit. This is a great time to get some validation for all the hard work the art teachers do throughout the year. We get a chance to show off and share what we love! Helping students create great work and learn about great artists! It was very exciting this year as one of my fifth graders won best of show - from ALL THE ELEMENTARY art that was there.

His work will go on to be displayed at the Virginia School Board Office in Charlottesville as well as at the Virginia Assembly in Richmond. Here is his piece - contour line drawing with different black pens then painted with liquid watercolor - choosing warm and cool colors to set off the plants from the background. Here is the work and his cool certificate:

There is a bit of a battle going on between the art teachers about keeping the school's work together. I am one who believes it is easier for me and easier for my parents to find their child's as well as their neighbors and child's friends work if it is together as a school. The way the other teachers do it is bring all the work and then hang it all willy nilly so nobody even the art teacher knows where it is hung because HS volunteers hang it. Then you get angry parents, damaged and lost work. Their theory is that people will look at more work if they have to hunt for their child's work among all the work hung. I like to know who comes and I want to see the student's face when they describe the lesson and show off the work to their family. If people have time they will stay and look at everything else, but if their child's work is there - they want to find it take pics and then browse if they don't have to rush off to the next child's event. Enough about that here are some pics of my display - all together - easy to find and easy to put up and take down - and easy to display once I get back to school - as I have had it in the hallway outside my door.
 Luckily my principal was attending and helped me deliver my display back to our school, which happens to be right behind the high school where the art show was. The I rushed home to let the dogs out and hopped in the car and got to the last few innings of the first game of the baseball tournament!