Local students artists are invited to submit original artwork to be used to promote Cincinnati Nature Center’s spring fundraising gala, Back to Nature 2015.  This event combines nature and art in a festive evening that features prominent Cincinnati area artists.  The winning artist will be invited to attend the event, sell artwork in the silent auction, and enjoy the food the festivities of the evening.  In addition, the artist will be featured in a press release and picked up by the local media.

This year’s theme is “Let’s Wing It”!  Good luck to Sydney Montgomery with her Monarch Butterfly entry!

Hamilton County Reflections Winners.  Congrats to the following OH students for received the following awards in the Hamilton County Reflections contest.

Visual Arts:

1st place – Kelly Cline
2nd place – Brianna Visbal
3rd place – Vivien Smith
Honorable Mention – Kaitlyn Kellard
Honorable Mention – Zoe Orlet
Honorable Mention- Rachel Lincoln

Photography:

1st – Lauren Sprague
2nd – Brittany Oldfield
The top 3 winning entries are now moving onto the State Levels

On December 1st, over 250 Art Foundations students came together to create a large scale, collaborative, mural.  In addition to raising awareness about the AIDS pandemic, students were encourage to use the power of art, influenced by the style of artist Keith Haring, to voice their positions on social and global issues as a means of educating the public and instituting change.  The mural, and the students’ accompanying small artworks, will be on display at OHHS through January 2015.  Some of the final images can be browsed below.

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National PTA Reflections  was developed as a way to encourage students to explore their talents and express themselves. The Reflections Program has inspired millions of students to reflect on a specific theme and create original artwork.  Each year, students in Grades Pre-K through 12 are recognized for bringing the theme to life through film production, dance choreography, literature, music composition, photography, and visual arts. The 2014-2015 Reflections program theme is “The world would be a better place…”

Best of luck to the following students who submitted work for this year’s competition and stay tuned for results!

Foundations students will be creating a collaborative mural that focuses on empowerment, and activism, through the arts, in the style of artist Keith Haring, as a part of the observance of World Aids Day.

December 1^st marks the annual observance of World AIDS Day, one of the most recognized international days and a key opportunity to raise awareness in communities across the world about the state of the pandemic, and critical next steps that must be taken to halt its spread. This year, 2014, marks the 26th anniversary of World AIDS Day. 

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 20 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 painter 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.  These artists expressed their opinions and message to the literate and illiterate alike, and earned worldwide recognition. 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.

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

Support World AIDS Day and Day With(out) Art by wearing black on December 1st and stop by the auditorium hallway throughout the day to see the progress.