Award notifications are in! Congratulations to these very talented OHHS Art and Design students on their accomplishments this year in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. A full posting of selected student works will be posted within the week!

Gold Key Winners:
Frank Johnson, Sweet Tooth,Drawing and Illustration
Selena Holmes , Seasons of Change, Ceramics & Glass 
Kayla Holwadel, Persevere, Photography

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Girl Rising recently selected OHHS Art and Design teacher Jamie Schorsch and Drawing and Printmaking students to be featured on their new website’s Educators Portal. The new site includes Case Studies and Snapshots that highlight the work that students and teachers are doing through Girl Rising.

“Girl Rising is reaching classrooms and communities around the world thanks to the passion and creativity of educators. Read on to hear directly from teachers, explore their lesson plans, and get to know the Girl Rising tools they have used and adapted in greater detail”. – Girl Rising

Drawing and Printmaking students worked to create a narrative image based upon one of the story vignettes that they selected Girl Rising. The approach to the rendering style of the project was inspired by contemporary artist Kara Walker. Students studied the approaches taken by Walker in addressing issues of race, sexuality, and gender through her silhouetted forms.

The students went through an extensive planning process involving the deconstruction of concepts addressed by the stories of the girls in Girl Rising into symbolic elements that translated the essence of their journey into a single frame, or image. The compositions the students created demonstrate the unification of their notes and sketches taken during the viewing of Girl Rising, research related to the girls’ stories, and preliminary project planning.

Check out the full feature and student artworks on the Girl Rising website at https://www.girlrising.com/casestudies/.

“Enlightened”, McKenna Poole

Day Without Art (DWA) began on December 1st 1989 as a national day of action and mourning, aligned with World AIDS Day, in response to the AIDS epidemic. Over 800 U.S. art and AIDS groups participated in the first Day Without Art by shutting down museums, sending staff to volunteer at AIDS services, or sponsoring special exhibitions of work about AIDS. Over the years, Day Without Art has grown into a collaborative project in which an estimated 8,000 national and international museums, galleries, art centers, AIDS service organizations, libraries, high schools and colleges take part.  Oak Hills High School has been a part of this tradition for over 21 years.

In 1997, Day Without Art switched the approach to a Day WITH Art, in order to recognize and promote increased programming of cultural events that draw attention to the continuing pandemic. The name was retained as a reminder of the impact the disease had on the arts and entertainment communities, but parentheses were added to the program title. Day With(out) Art highlights art projects intended to inspire communities to action by creating art and awareness about AIDS.

The artist’s role as social commentator and activist has been engrained in the history of civilization and culture. Art and its creation as a response to social and political issues can be a powerful catalyst for influencing and raising public awareness resulting in positive social change. Art has a long history of using social commentary as a weapon of change or enlightenment. German expressionist artist Kathe Kollwitz created artworks that centered on themes of poverty, unemployment and worker exploitation during WWI and WWII.  Mexican muralist Diego Rivera used his art as a tool to vocalize for the oppressed against their oppressors. In April 1937, the world learned the shocking truth about the Nazi Luftwaffe’s bombing of Guernica, Spain- a civilian target- through Pablo Picasso’s great anti-war painting, Guernica. American Pop artist Keith Haring created public works to raise awareness about issues of drug abuse, corruption in government and societies- such as the Berlin Wall in Germany and South Africa under apartheid. These artists expressed their opinions and message to the literate and illiterate alike, and earned worldwide recognition.

To mark the anniversary of this event, the Art and Design Department at Oak Hills High School focuses on the positive and influential role the arts play in AIDS activism- as well as in other social, global, and political issues.  Artwork will remained uncovered as a way to draw attention to the possible future roles our current art students may play in our globalized future.