Students at Hicksville High School have been busy creating artwork throughout the entire school year. They were finally able to show off the hard work they put into their art projects at the school’s annual art show held on Monday, May 19.
The art show displayed at least 1,000 pieces of art, and a minimum of 150 pieces from sculpture and ceramics alone.
Sculpture and Ceramics teacher Angela Galante says that the school likes to foster the arts and help students develop their talents.
“We have a strong art department,” said Galante. “There are not many schools that run the courses that we do.”
The Art Department has seven full-time teachers and offers classes that include Studio Art, which is the prerequisite into all of the other art classes. In this class, the students learn the basics, and from there are able to sign up for other classes such as drawing, painting, fashion, computer graphics, photography, sculpture, ceramics, A.P. art, stained glass, and jewelry.
When the students excel in an art class and want to further their learnings, Hicksville High School also offers independent studies where the students can create above and beyond what they would have in a regular class.
One of Galante’s students, tenth grader Allison Bueche, takes classes in sculpture and painting. “I liked sculpture a lot actually,” she said. ”I didn’t think I would like it so much. It was the first project that kind of hooked me in.”
In her first sculpture project, the class put plaster in a tied-up garbage bag and each student held the bag to mold the plaster in a certain way. “The next day we took it out of the bag. From there, we just carved and painted it to make some sort of abstract piece from it.”
Bueche has six pieces of artwork displayed at the art show, including two from her sculpture class.
The art program at Hicksville High School likes to put the students’ artwork out into the community as much as possible. Recently, students have entered artwork into the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington in their Long Island’s Best art exhibit. “It is a very prestigious exhibit to be in,” added Galante.
Galante notes that Hicksville is able to run all these programs and participates in outside exhibits due to the great support from the community and from the school.
“We have a wonderful administration and a phenomenal new principal, Ray Williams,” said Galante. “Without them we would not be able to have any of this be possible”
While the teachers can teach the students and show them what to do, art allows the students to use their creativity to bring out their own individuality into their artwork, as well as in other aspects of their lives.
The spring concert for orchestra, treble choir and band was held on the same night as the art show. This allows the students and parents to walk around the art show before heading over to watch the concert. “This way we really get everybody to see it,” said Galante.
