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Top finishers awarded for Reflections Art Program
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Some of the students from Austintown Intermediate School who participated in the Reflections Art Program posed together with their trophies and certificates.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Chair of the Reflections PTA Mandy Maloney Richmond read a statement before the start of the awards ceremony for the participants in the Reflections Art Program at Austintown Intermediate School.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Austintown Intermediate School fourth-grade Principal Michael Zoccali (right) presented the trophy for first place in the visual arts category to Kara Pirone during the awards ceremony for the Reflections Art Program.
By TIM CLEVELAND
Austintown Intermediate School has participated in the Reflections Art Program for its entire 40-year history, with 35 students in grades three through five entering projects.
The top finishers in seven categories were announced and awarded trophies during an awards presentation on Jan. 28 at the school.
The seven categories were film production, literature, visual arts – special needs, visual arts, music composition, photography and dance choreography.
The top three finishers in each category were film production: Maria Morales, Alivia Franklin, Sylvia Direnzo; literature: Madison Beaudis, Gabriella Sopko, Nyla Wells; visual arts – special needs: Sean Vasko; visual arts: Kara Pirone, Alexa Becker, Amira Welch; music composition: Armand Giovannone; photography: Kameron Grenamyer, Landon Farr, Ethan James; dance choreography: Eliza Farr, Emily O’Hara, Robyn Dinoble.
The Austintown School District will select the best projects from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade to represent the district in the state competition, which will be in April in Columbus.
“It furthers the arts in the school,” said Mandy Maloney Richmond, chair of the Art Reflections PTA. “A lot of schools are cutting arts out, so this helps the kids to grow individually on their own and it promotes the arts within the school districts.
“The art teachers helped us this year. They all talked about it in their classrooms and then passed out the forms. The students turned their art into the teachers and then the teachers came back to me with it.”
AIS Principal Jeff Swavel said the program helps bring out the creative side of the students who participate in it.
“It’s one of the things that’s hugely supported by the PTA,” he said. “It’s one of the true kids activities. It’s really cool. It lets kids explore photography and dance and things like that they don’t get a lot of. Our art teachers working with the kids and promoting and helping them. It’s a real special event.”
Swavel said he’s seen some outstanding works of art created by the children.
“Some of the art work is always amazing to me,” he said. “The photography; we have third- and fourth-graders who do some phenomenal photography. I’ve even seen them enter it out in the Canfield Fair.”