Kings County Arts in Action

Arts education, which includes visual arts, music, drama, and media arts, is an important part of a well-rounded education. This newsletter serves to highlight the amazing work with the arts being done by school districts within our county.

Students in Mrs. Mayberry's class at Parkview Middle School have been working with watercolors and oil pastels. Their work can be seen in the gallery below.

Students in Ms. Bejarano's art courses at Hanford High School have been working on a variety of projects this spring, including our featured background for this month:

• Art 1 students created Henri Matisse inspired collages using a focal point
• Art 2 students created Roy Litchenstein inspired paintings and mixed media pieces using ink and colored pencils
• Art 3 students participated in an "Inspire Me" project where they illustrated inspirational quotes
• Art 4 students completed projects of each student's choice

Students in the 300 unit recently had the opportunity to "take over" the Lunchroom Cypher Podcast. This project was led by podcast creator, Dr. Ian Levy. Students wrote an original rap piece, and then took listeners behind the lyrics to see the inspiration of the writers. This podcast can be found here as well as on other streaming platforms.

Hanford West High School students have access to many arts opportunities on campus:

• Students in Ms. Stapleton's Art 1 classes completed career study projects
• Students in Mr. Holcomb's Ceramics class have been creating busts
• Students in Mr. Case's art classes have been playing with pattern design and utilizing pastels

Students at Avenal High School and Kettleman City Elementary School traveled to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on April 10th to attend a concert of the classical guitar quartet "The Romeros". The district is also hosting several upcoming events, which can be seen below.

Students at Stratford and Central k-8 schools are diving deep into mark making, color and pattern. They are applying their skills to a fish research project, and are building new skills in scale/enlargement and 3-D construction.

HESD held the First Annual Hanford Elementary School District Junior High Honor Band performance on Saturday, March 26 at the JFK gymnasium.

7th and 8th grade students from Jefferson, JFK & WW were selected & invited to take part in Honor Band. The selected students spent five and half hours over the course of Friday and Saturday morning rehearsing under guest conductor Mike Schofield, Band Director for Kingsburg High School, before performing in front a packed house Saturday afternoon. These talented young musicians put on an outstanding performance.

In spite of the obstacles of the past two years, music has continued to thrive in HESD as evidenced by this fabulous performance:

Video of The Dragon Lord by Randall D. Standridge: https://hesd-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/mschofield_hanfordesd_org/EWQ2Vmdxc7dNvbv5io3YXA4B0EGjftoQa0M882yzqn_P3g?e=cWOCry

Students in Mr. Alvarez's art classes at Corcoran High School have completed many projects this spring:

• The focus of the Bottle Still Life was to have students use eye-hand coordination and deeply observe how colors change when crystals or glass are hit by light.
• The masks are personal and students needed at least two personal symbols and tell a story in which the mask is worn by a character.
• The David still life was utilized to explore the chiaroscuro or light and shade technique to accelerate the students blending ability concept.

These are the walls of the Shelly Baird Conference room. This artwork is produced by students in our Shelly Baird classrooms. There are two pieces gifted by other students to Shelly Baird walls. They have some incredibly talented students!

Lemoore High School Performance Studies Department performed Mamma Mia! on March 30, 31, & April 1 to packed houses. Mamma Mia! showcased Seniors A'anna Taylor, Xiomara Siguenza, and Junior Yadhira Carrillo as the Dynamos. Seniors Gabriel Gonzalez, Hector De Santiago, & Robert Mangahas rounded out the cast as the three dads. Junior Sarah Raber and Freshman Oren Morshead made their debuts as Sophie & Pepper. The show was under the Direction of Amy Ecker, as well as Music & Vocal Direction by John Ecker & Marc McGhee, with Scene Design by Stephen Rotella and Costume Design by Tracy Gudgel. Senior Carly Bush made her debut as choreographer. The show included a 6 piece band of live musicians.

Students at Pioneer Middle School have been spending a lot of time on a very intricate art style from the early impressionism era called pointillism.

Students in Mr. Brauckman's art courses at Hanford High have been working on the following spring projects:

AP Art

• Portfolio preparation.
• Digital Painting
• Drawing

Art 1

• Working on portraiture
• Finished a color section

Ceramics 1 and 2

• Students exhibited at the Young Master's Exhibition at the Kings Art Center
• Getting ready to fire Rainsticks
• Ceramics 2 students are finishing their porcelain underglaze skulls
• Art Club Travelled to San Francisco to visit Art Museums

Hanford West’s production of Beauty and the Beast, Jr. was an amazing show of talented singers and dancers, beautiful virtual projections, inventive costumes, stunning sets and scenes. They performed for over 1000 audience attendees during the run of the show and for 300 students from Roosevelt Elementary and Armona Elementary Schools at a free special showing! Ms.Hibanda and Mr. Hopper are so proud of these young performers and crew! They truly left their heart on the stage every single show!

After our spectacular Spring Musical, the Hanford West singers did not take a break from performing. On April 30th, they gave an amazing performance at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk - Music in the Parks Choral Festival. All groups- Mens Choir, Womens Choir, and Chamber Singers received Superior. Men’s Choir won First Place, Women’s Choir won First Place, and Chamber Singers, got 2nd, missing the top position by two points.

Liberty Middle School jazz ensemble performs at the CMEA jazz festival held at Hanford high school auditorium. Liberty Middle School was the only middle school to perform at this festival and receive the unanimous superior rating! This band meets every day before school at 7:15 AM and goes all year long. Students participating in this group are there just to learn about jazz and learn how to play in a big band setting and are not given a grade for this class. They also had the opportunity to perform at the San Joaquin Jazz Festival held at Buchanan high school, Fresno city jazz festival held at Fresno City college, and the Excellence in Education dinner and award ceremony held in Hanford.

Liberty Winter Guard and Winter Percussion wrapped up their season performing at West Hills Golden Eagle Arena for the SVWAA championships held on Saturday, April 2. Liberty went to Percussion received second place in their division and Liberty Winter Guard Received first place. They also had the opportunity to perform at the Save Mart Center on the campus of Fresno State for the Inaugural Sierra cup indoor!

CCSESA Arts Initiative in collaboration with the California Department of Education and The California Arts Project would like feedback about how they can provide professional learning and resources for different groups focused on the Arts Education Framework. While the pandemic prevented a rollout of the Arts Education Framework in face-to-face sessions across the state, they are shaping resources for implementation based on the feedback from the following groups:

• Educators
• Administrators
• Court and Community school teachers and administrators
• Arts Organization partners
• Parent/Family representatives

You may provide feedback here.

The VAPA committee has compiled a list of resources for arts educators.

The Kings County Office of Education VAPA website has resources and information about the arts in Kings County.

Kings County Office of Education will share next year's art submissions deadlines in the near future. Submissions may be sent to Liz Norris. Districts and sites are responsible for verifying that photos may be publicly released. Photos should be submitted in groupings of three due to the gallery format of S'more. Videos of live performances may also be accepted.

February 2020

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January 2021

March 2021

October 2021

January 2022

March 2022