The work of roughly 40 Red Hook High School students was on display Thursday evening during the annual Senior Art Show at the Performing Arts Center atrium.
The artwork created by 21 senior students will remain on display for several days in the atrium, including for the Senior Awards ceremony to be held in the PAC 6 p.m. Monday.
In addition to the artwork, several students played live music to liven the event and, inside the PAC, International Baccalaureate film students showed their creations off on the big screen.
For the art show, all seniors are invited to participate, not just IB students, and there is no minimum for how many pieces a student needs to display. The seniors can choose to display any artwork from throughout their educational journey and display it however they choose.
Art Department Coordinator Julia Shultis called the event “a rite of passage” for the seniors. She noted while IB art students are required to show the ability to curate and display an art collection, their evaluation was last month.
“They don’t do this for a grade. They do this purely for doing the satisfaction of putting their work up and getting to show off what they’ve done,” she said. “There’s a lot thought put into how they arrange it.”
Many friends and family members came through to see the students’ work Thursday. There was also refreshments, including sour cream and cheddar potato chips served inside one student’s bowl.
Shultis and fellow art teacher Kristin Larson moved around the room throughout, talking with attendees, assisting their students and enjoying the displays, themselves.
Shultis noted, they provide suggestions for curating the collections if they are asked, “but for the most part all the decisions of how many pieces and how they arrange it is completely up to them, which is pretty neat. We stand back and say ‘Wow.’ It makes us very proud to see it all come together.”
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