Arts & Entertainment
Kids Pack Parrish Museum's School Art Festival
Young artists and art fans enjoy displays and activities at the art-themed community event.
Face-painted kids, acrobatic plate-balancers and crowds congregated around art marked the opening of the 2010 student exhibition: "Students View American Still Life," on Dec. 4 at the in Southampton Village. The annual School Art Festival displayed hundreds of works made by students from the East End and farther afield. This year, 26 schools participated ranging from the Hamptons to Huntington and the North Fork.
The art was inspired by the museum's fall exhibition, "Still Life: Treasures from the Parrish Art Museum." Students viewed the art in person or in slides and then made their own art. High school students submit individual artworks. Those in lower grades make group projects.
Inspiration translated into traditional still lives centering on fruit or flowers arranged on a table. students mixed it up a bit and drew arrangements of sneakers and cardboard boxes. Other times, imagination flew to unusual places. This includes a dangling sculpture made by Caitie Neill who was inspired by pop artist Jim Dine's painting "Little Blue Palette" made in 1963.
Find out what's happening in Southamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The sculpture was a favorite of seventh-grader and exhibiting artist Cameron Heaney. Drawings done by high school students in East Hampton and Southampton grabbed the eye of her sister, Shanna Heaney, a sophomore at .
"All the drawings are great," said Shanna, who said she attended the opening to support her sibling.
Find out what's happening in Southamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Cameron made a large-scale painting with the help of two friends, and a crew of friends and family turned out for the opening.
Southampton High School juniors Juliette Behringer and Victoria Wisner worked in tandem. Each made a drawing but parts of the composition — dripping day-glo glue — traveled from one artwork to the next.
A high point of the show is seeing what other kids are up to, said all of the students interviewed at the opening.
"I liked getting to see what kids down-island are doing, not just here," said Brianna Fullam, a junior at Southampton. Fullam is a member of the museum's collaboration with Southampton High School, which takes place year-round.
"It's exciting," said Paige Goldsmith, a sophomore at William Floyd High School who has a drawing in the show.
"Students View American Still Life" remains on view through Jan. 23. Exhibition tours will be held on Saturdays at 2 p.m. (except Dec. 25 and Jan.1). A Family Tour and Art Workshop will be held on Dec. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m.
