On Thursday, Feb. 16th during Community Block, the AP Art classes hosted an art showcase in the downstairs hallway of Bldg. 4. Their art pieces ranged from photos of football players to newspaper scrap work.

Each class had a detailed assignment to gather information on a topic and then convert that topic into pieces of art. The students had to create artwork and write an investigation statement on how it connected to their topic. After the art was created, the students designed and laid out a panel in the hallway to convey their theme.

Junior Maggie Smith, currently enrolled in AP 2-D Art and Design: Photography, selected her investigation statement to be ‘What Are The Challenges And Cycles That Lead To Poverty?’ Smith made sure to plan far ahead of the showcase so that she could lay out her panel to her liking.

“A lot of planning goes into each image. Our work is broken down into sustained investigations. Each image needs to represent something bigger than what is just in the image. For example, one of my collages is focused on mental illness and how it leads to poverty. I created a collage using a prescription, diagnosis sheets, and many mental health forms. I then cut the collage apart to create a stabbing effect on the man. The red in the image represents the pain and suffering that mental health brings,” exclaimed Smith.

Another member of Smith’s class, junior Hayley Womble, focused more on photography designs for her panel. Womble uses Photoshop to edit her pictures to allow the meaning of the photos to come across more clearly.

“I like photographing pictures that use light and color to accentuate the meaning of the photos. There are unique processes for each photo but I will mostly use photoshop to highlight the meaning of the photo,” said Womble.

The AP Art showcase was not only a display of the student’s work but an opportunity for the students to market their work and invite family and friends to the opening.

“The purpose of the AP Art show was to offer our highest level students an opportunity to curate and design a panel or showcase of their work. The students then worked on arranging the pieces into a powerful and cohesive display. Students were required to market the show and invite guests to the opening,” said the Upper School Visual Arts Department Chair Mrs. Melissa Grillo.

Senior Kelvin Rolle believes it is important to showcase students’ art whenever possible.

“It gives everyone a chance to see our art. It also highlights the differences of what each AP class is doing, drawing vs. photo, which makes us want to do better if our artwork is not as good as the other classes,” said Rolle.

The Pharcyde hopes all Upper School students and faculty will get a chance to visit the showcase before it is taken down on Friday, Mar. 3rd.