District art show goes virtual in Tewksbury | News

TEWKSBURY — The Tewksbury Public Schools premiered the online district art exhibition on Fri­day, May 7 via Tewksbury Telemedia’s YouTube chan­nel. The art show, typically a packed event at Tewks­bury Memorial High School in non-pandemic times, went virtual in light of the constraints of public gatherings due to COVID-19.

Student art from all schools and all grades was featured during the 90-minute program, now view­able on the town’s YouTube channel and running on the Tewksbury Educa­tion Channel Comcast 22 and Verizon 34. The YouTube platform makes the art show shareable with friends and family around the globe.

Student art work, short films, and music were all incorporated into the program. Background vocals and instrumentals were performed by the TMHS Concert Choir and Con­cert Band. A series of ima­ges of student art work, photography, and sculpture moved across the screen, identifying the student artist and school as well as the title of the artwork and any technique, style or medium used.

At the end of the program, short films from TMHS students were show­cased. Some of the films tackled important topics, such as Amber Swienski’s film about mental health, or were creative vignettes such as Jack Stadtman’s Scream for Ice Cream.

In some instances, the films were silent, allowing the imagery to convey the message, and in other in­stances, films had title cards mixed in to express dialogue or theme information.

The program was assembled by the district’s fine art and performing art edu­cators from the Dew­ing, North Street, Heath Brook, Trahan, Ryan, Wynn and high school; Kristen Ko­siba, Jen Barbati, Me­lis­sa Lane, Eric Donald­son, David Moffatt, Nicole LaPierre, Emma Sweet­apple, Ashley Sullivan, and Jen Arnold.

The teachers collaborated to make a Google slide show which then was made into the video by Tewksbury Telemedia. Tea­cher Celeste Pellegrino ad­ded high school students’ music as background.

The art show is juried and winners will be an­nounced in a future edition of the Town Crier.

To view the program, visit https://www.youtube.com/c/TewksburyTV/videos and search the thumbnails for “Tewksbury Pu­blic Schools District Art Show.”