Students’ artistic efforts were on full display Saturday at West Aurora High School as School District 129 offered its 17th annual Fine Arts Festival.
The free event that was open to the public benefits West Aurora High School’s Patrons of the Performing Arts, a nonprofit group which supports music and theater programs at the school.
The program was again overseen and organized by West Aurora School District K-12 Fine Arts Curriculum Coordinator Jonathan McLear, who said he has been involved with the program the past 14 years.
“This is our 17th year and it brings student musicians and artists from all of our buildings including elementary, middle school and high school,” he said. “Everybody gets to see their artwork and take a look at what other levels at other schools are doing.”
A large number of students throughout the district were set to participate, “either singing or playing in a band or have their artwork up,” McLear said a few days before the event.
“Just in our elementary schools alone, we’re probably looking at 1,500 elementary kids who have artwork on display or are in a music choir or recorder ensemble,” he said.
McLear said there are plenty of works entered for the event.
“Sometimes, it’s the teachers selecting the work. Other times, students may ask that their work be entered,” McLear said. “Every teacher does it a little bit differently, but our art teachers try to show as many as possible.”
Regarding performing artists, McLear said that every elementary school “has one music group that performs, while our middle schools have choirs and bands that are preforming as well as high school jazz bands and concert ensembles performing.”
“I think that one of the neat things we do is our seventh grade bands play alongside our top high school bands, so they are all together in the gym, and the seventh-graders get to experience what it’s like sitting alongside kids who have played for seven or eight years,” he said.
McLear said that “one of the best experiences for our younger students is to see the opportunities and continue working on their art.”
“They get to see the progression from middle school and high school. And it’s also a great opportunity – a lot of our high school students love this day because they get to relive their past with either old art and music teachers and look at where they came from,” McLear said. “As far as art classes and supporting the arts, this showcases the level of support District 129 provides to the fine arts and we want to keep it going strong.”
Billy and Hannah Vanduzor of North Aurora were among the crowds packing the hallways Saturday at the festival and enjoying the work of their daughter and other students.
“My daughter Nora has art and is performing in her choir,” Hannah Vanduzor said. “My daughter did a splatter painting using watercolor. We came the past two years and it’s a pretty neat event and each year her work is in a frame and hung up in our loft. I just think it’s very important to show the various levels of art – you have paintings, ceramics, music. It’s really important.”
Billy Vanduzor said he “was pretty creative as a kid and was involved in music.”
“I was a student here at West High so this is a do-over for me,” he said. “I think this is amazing that they bring kids from every school from the whole district and it’s fun to see how inclusive the whole thing is.”
Mike Leverence, an art educator at Freeman Elementary School, said the festival is “an amazing event.”
“We’re all excited to show what our students can do – their creative talents – and it’s great to meet family and have everybody come in and celebrate what their children are able to do,” he said. “We can go and listen to students sing and hear the band and see their artistic skills as well. Arts are important and it’s the thing that gets kids to come to school some days. It shouldn’t be an afterthought.”
Leah Lichy of North Aurora, along with her husband Paul and son Kooper, 7, said this was their first year at the festival and that their fourth-grade daughter Ireland “was playing the recorder” at the event.
“It’s kind of cool to see everything in the same place and be around all the kids,” Leah Lichy said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
