VA hosts their first senior art show
The Beyoncé Wall for the “I Spy” senior art show. Photo by Amy Arias Quijano.
November 21, 2021
The opening of “I Spy,” the first senior art show of the 2021-22 school year, took place on Thursday, November 18 in the Norma E. Brown Gallery located in the Visual Arts annex. The “I Spy” exhibition will be open until December 6 between 2:45 and 5:30PM.
The show, which features work from nine students in the Visual Arts magnet— Zaria Cosby, Jada Bivens, Kaitlyn Harrington, Estefany Lopez, Katie Mellick, Hayley Reed, Bailee Soeder, Elaena Stemann, and Sophia Tewalt— showcases the seniors’ best work from their entire time in the VA magnet program.
The show was almost entirely set up by the seniors with the art teachers only overseeing the process, according to Ms. Alford.
Each senior show group consists of eight to nine Visual Arts students. These students must collaborate on several aspects of their exhibits including selecting a theme, choosing pieces to display, and physically setting up the show.
This group of seniors chose the theme “I Spy” because of the drastic differences in their art styles as well as the variety of content in all of their artwork.
“We used some really big self-portraits, or some people used animals as their subject. We’ve also got really big black and white pieces and some we did over quarantine,” Jada Bivens (12, VA) said.
Each show group had a limited amount of time to plan everything out and select the artwork that is displayed in the gallery. The groups were also limited to two school days to physically set up the pieces in the gallery.
“[Planning the art show] has been a little bit stressful, but it’s been exciting just to get it done and see how it all comes together,” Bivens said.
Despite there being school-wide issues with COVID-19 and the return from virtual learning, “the artwork is still amazing,” Alford said.
Like years prior, many students and teachers are hoping to attend the first senior art show of the year, Ms. Alford said. There will be a limit of 20 people allowed to view the gallery at a time due to safety concerns with COVID-19.
The next senior art show will open on December 9.
