NEWBURY — In an effort to encourage and showcase young artists, a member of the Newbury Elementary School Parent Teacher Association has introduced a new arts program set to culminate with a Feb. 8 awards ceremony at the school.
“The program is called the Reflections Art. It’s a National Parent Teacher Association run program. This is our debut year at Newbury Elementary doing the program,” chairperson and local artist Elizabeth Andrews said.
The program was founded in 1969 and serves as the National PTA’s cornerstone arts program.
Andrews explained that the program is broken up into several artistic categories including visual arts, music composition, videography, photography, dance and choreography, and literature. She said it also includes special arts, an all-encompassing category for students with special needs.
“I saw one submission this morning that was this first grader who had written out a full song, the lyrics to it, and then sang it with rhyming words and everything. So just it’s really incredible to just offer these opportunities to kids and then see what comes out of it,” Andrews said.
Principal Beth Yando said that they loved the idea when Andrews presented it to them.
“We’re excited to showcase the talent of the students at NES,” Yando said.
Andrews said that the students have been working on their projects at home for around a month and a half.
“They’ve been really excited. I’ve been so surprised to see their work and their time that they are putting into this, and how much of themselves they are drawing from,” Andrews said.
Art teacher Brittany Williams, who has been helping Andrews with the program, said she is expecting between 50 and 75 submission at the end of Thursday. She said that despite the majority of the work being done by students at home, many of them have come to her with questions regarding how to execute their idea for a project.
“I was getting worried about two weeks ago. I was like, I don’t know if anyone’s participating. But this week they’ve really come together and brought in a lot of work,” Williams said.
Andrews praised the students for putting themselves out there even though it can be scary.
“As a kid, you just need small little moments of encouragement to grab on to the arts and to potentially make it a career in the future,” Andrews said.
She shared what folks can expect on the day of the show.
“There we will be explaining the program, having an art show with all the art displayed, and then the parent judges will be awarding the children whose work goes above and beyond,” Andrews said.
She said that selected students will go onto to show their work at a state-level show, with the potential to advance to the national level.