Friday, May 17, 2019
Gallery features works from more than 800 contributors
By GRAIG GRAZOSI
STRUTHERS
Struthers High School was once again transformed into a building-wide art gallery for the school’s second annual “Evening with the Arts” on Thursday night.
The school district’s artistic showcase featured work from various artistic disciplines ranging from black and white line drawing to 3D sculptures and digital media. Parents, students and the public were welcomed to the event.
Rhianna Sciortino, 18, was the student organizer for the gallery. She helped curate the work that was included in the show and designed the installations where the art was displayed.
“It was tough deciding which pieces to include because we had so much, and we have so many talented artists here at the school,” Sciortino said.
She had about 20 pieces of her own art included in the show.
The event featured works from more than 800 students and showcased the district’s “specials” department, which includes foreign language classes, food and nutrition, art, music, physical education, digital media, technology and entrepreneurship.
Sarah Herrholtz, the chairwoman of the specials department and an art teacher at the high school, was one of the teachers instrumental in pulling the gallery together. She described it as not only a way to show off student creativity, but also to show younger students what they can anticipate doing when they reach middle and high school.
Herrholtz was joined by fellow teachers Jessica Zappia and Jessica Tomko in creating and running the event.
“We wanted to use the event to show off some of our classes and get our younger students excited about what they’ll get to take,” Herrholtz said.
In addition to hundreds of illustrations, paintings and sculptures, there were also foreign language-themed tables featuring culture-inspired snacks, a green-screen demonstration by digital-media students and several musical performances throughout the night, including a duo singing at the event’s entrance.
Elizabeth Dragus, 18, was one of the show’s featured artists and helped organize and run the event alongside Sciortino.
Dragus hopes art will be a major part of her life going forward; she has been accepted into the Columbus College of Art and Design, where she’ll double major in illustration and business and minor in art history.
The event was particularly close to Dragus’ heart as it will be the last time her art is displayed at her high school.
“This year there was definitely more pressure – pressure I put on myself because I just wanted to make it as nice as it could be for me and my classmates to show off our work,” Dragus said.
She had several award-winning pieces featured in the show.