This Friday, May 3, the Oliver Ames cafeteria will undergo a transformation. In a few hours time, hundreds pieces of artwork will be moved from the art hallway to the cafeteria and set up for this year’s OA Art Show. The work that is going into this show, however, has been going on for quite some time.
Oliver Ames art teacher Ms. Shea said that preparations for the Art Show started just after the Patriot’s Place Exhibit, the last major event for the Art Department, ended.
“The very first weekend of March is when we began planning for this – it’s a big undertaking,” she said; then, with a bit of a laugh, “We call it ‘Art Show season.’”
One of the reasons that it’s such a big deal to prepare for is simply the amount of artwork that will be on display. Miss Shea said that that there are “over 350 pieces” going into the show, “because each student in the program has at least two pieces;” students in Art 3 and Art 4 will have more.
The event will take place this Friday, May 3rd, from 6:00 – 8:30 pm. Miss Shea mentioned that the annual show is an event that practically the whole town turns out to come see. The artwork is certainly the main attraction, but it’s not the only part of the event. There will be refreshments, and even a cake made by an OA alumna who makes a special Art Show cake every year. To set the mood, a few students from the jazz ensemble will provide live music (one of the musicians is actually an art student as well!)
At 8:00, the ‘Time in a Bottle Ceremony’ will commence; this part of the event is specifically for the seniors in the art program. “Because this is at the end of the school year, there’s a way to kick of the end of seniors leaving as well,” said Miss Shea. In the ceremony, each art student in the 12th grade will be given a ceramic vase made by one of the art teachers, Miss Shea or Mrs. Sapienza Hunt , that has a personal note written and dropped inside. “A lot of the kids that take art stick with art all the way through their entire four years here, and, even if it’s two years or three years, it’s a big part of their lives,” explained Miss Shea, saying that the ceremony is a nice way to end that for these students.
All in all, a lot of time, effort, and care has been put into the preparation for this year’s OA Art Show: planning the event, preparing artwork for display, making vases and notes for all the seniors, and – of course – all the time that went into each individual students’ artwork. To see the fabulous results, come to the Oliver Ames cafeteria this Friday, May 3, from 6:00 – 8:30, and enjoy the OA Art Show!