On Aug. 20, Manual’s Visual Arts (VA) magnet hosted the opening of the “Monster Mania” art show to showcase the collaboration between kindergardeners from Bloom Elementary and VA students. The collaboration was spearheaded by Ms. Tallent (Visual Art) and Ms. Young (Visual Art) who received the kindergarteners’ artwork and presented it to the VA students. The students recreated the art without changing the concept.
Melinda Snyder is an artist in residence at Bloom Elementary. Snyder read I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll to her class last year and then asked the kids to draw a monster from their imagination. “They just went at it, no one said ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘I don’t want to do this,’” Snyder said. “Everyone was enthusiastic.” Synder then contacted VA’s Tallent, who gave the drawings to Manual students to reproduce. “We were all awed at the creativeness and cuteness of the Bloom kindergartners,” Tallent said. After redrawing the monsters, Manual’s artists got to meet the Bloom students. The kindergarteners screamed with surprise after seeing at their imaginations reproduced in another light.
“I was excited, the kids were adorable,” Cindy Chen (12, VA) said. “We even got to choose which drawing we wanted to do.”
Many other Manual students stopped by the art gallery to see the reception. “I really enjoy children, so I really liked this show,” Katie Walker (11, MST) said. “I think it was a great way connect our communities.”
