By Sam Perry
This year, Beaufort High School will hold its first ever Advanced Placement (AP) Studio Art Show on May 14th. The show was an idea of art teacher Scott Gordon, teacher of the AP Studio Art program. Scott has been teaching at BHS for 18 years and as of this year, Scott started teaching AP. Scott stated that he was eager to teach the class and when asked why he wanted to do this show he said “This is my first year teaching AP. I was surprised after seeing these kids’ very talented works that more people hadn’t been able to see all this talent…So hey, why not an art show?”
The idea has become a reality to be held on May 14th 2015 with an opening reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Each student has produced 24 pieces of advanced placement quality art since the start of the year. After each of the students in the class sent off five pieces of their art to be reviewed by AP graders (as part of the final exam) it was decided that the students remaining 95 pieces of art were going to be featured in the show with select pieces of art up for purchase.
The artists featured in the show are seniors Hannady Alberto, Kaleb Bennett, Katie Harrison, Sarah Holloway and Dima Shipsey. These students’ talents are more than just being a “skilled artist.” Their real talents lie in their dedication and creativity. Most of us who have picked up a pencil or tried to make something look “just right” know that drawing alone is hard. Now try doing that on a large canvas with one week deadlines and a schedule full of other classes.
Besides the AP quality in these students’ work, anyone who comes to the art show will also see the very distinct approaches from each of the five artists. This won’t be a typical high school art show that will have 30 drawings of the same sunset because the works presented are reflective of the fact that AP Studio Art is a college level art class done by college level skilled student artists. Each student had to identify a theme for their art for this year. Senior Katie Harrison’s work is themed around The Brothers Grimm Fairytales. This will vary a good deal from Kaleb Bennett’s work with a theme of “humans in combination with animal anatomy.” And these are just two of the five artists’ themes.
Check out the AP Studio Art Show on May 14th 2015 in The Performing Arts Center at the Beaufort High School and enjoy yourself, enjoy the art and maybe even bring a few pieces home. Don’t let a show like this pass you by.
