Cooperstown Elementary School students created hundreds of pieces of animal-themed art, now on display through Feb. 24 at the Susquehanna SPCA.
An opening reception Wednesday, which was Valentine’s Day, drew dozens of young artists and their families to the SQSPCA, where they eagerly sought out their own contributions to the exhibit, titled “Paws and Reflect,” and visited with the shelter’s animals.
The inspiration for the collaboration came from art teacher Alyssa Ketcham, who volunteers at the shelter with her school-age daughter.
She said she got to know Stacie Haynes, the SQSPCA executive director, and from there decided that she wanted to find a way to combine her two passions, love of animals and love of art.
Ketcham’s students have been working for weeks on animal-related art projects. About 450 pieces of art adorned the shelter’s Community Room and main lobby.
Kindergarteners painted winter birds and pasted feathers onto their bodies. First-graders created balloon animal drawings inspired by Jeff Koons’ balloon animal sculptures. Second-graders created beta fish art.
Third-graders created portraits of sweater-wrapped cats, inspired by a cat who lived in the shelter named Mr. Business. Fourth-graders created pop art pets in the style of artist Roy Lichtenstein.
Fifth-graders slab-rolled clay bowls which they stenciled with animal tracks. Sixth-graders created animal totems based on the folk art of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest.
“It is so important to me to get our students involved in the community from early on, and I am so excited that I get to use art to help them do so,” she said.
Haynes said that Ketcham “went way above and beyond,” and her students got caught up in her energy and excitement.
“My kids [ages 6 and 9] go to Cooperstown, and the kids have been talking about it for weeks,” she said. “This will definitely be an annual thing. I think it’s gone really, really well.”
The exhibit is slated to stay up for a week to give people who couldn’t come on opening night have an opportunity to visit, and hopefully interact with the shelter pets.
“For us, there’s nothing better than having all these people here,” she said. “This is exactly what we need, for people to visit. And even if they’re not interested in adopting, just to socialize so our animals are seeing people.”
Cooperstown Elementary School Principal Amy Malcuria, who started her career in education as an art teacher, said she has adopted her pet cats from the SQSPCA, and just adopted two more kittens at Christmas.
“I’m really excited about it,” Malcuria said about the art show. “It’s a beautiful venue to showcase all of our students work.”
She said that there were a lot of smiling faces and a prideful students Wednesday, adding that there was also a “really nice showing of family support, which is pretty typical for Cooperstown.”
The student didn’t just contribute the art, some also volunteered to help set up the opening reception.
Fifth-grader Winston Hom, 10, is a founding member of the AOK Club, which stands for Acts of Kindness.
Malcuria said the club empowers students to take ownership their school and greater community. It began as an outlet for students who wanted to help the school custodians pick up litter at the school, and it merged with another club that performed acts of kindness.
Winston said the club has helped animals in the past, including a fundraiser for an animal that had breathing problems.
“I think it’s pretty cool that we can finally help support the SPCA,” he said. “As much as I love seeing the dogs often here, I think they need a home.”
The SQSPCA is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and located at 5082-5088 state Route 28, just south of the Cooperstown.
For more information, call 607-547-8111 or visit www.sqspca.org.