“Exploring lines, feeling color, hearing music…” This was the caption for a mosaic painted by Windham second graders as part of the Windham Art Show that took place this week at Windham High School.

The show transformed the halls of Windham High into an open gallery, exhibiting artwork from grades K-12 that climbed walls and wrapped around the school’s new auditorium. Over 2,000 works graced the halls from different artistic mediums such as painting, drawing, ceramic, sculpture, print and mixed-media.

During the Monday opening of the art show, visitors were treated to a variety of fine arts events in addition to the gallery of student art. Demonstrations in weaving, wheel-thrown ceramics and printmaking took place along with a performance by the Windham Chamber Singers who sang with children from the primary school.

Art director and teacher Angelika Blanchard organized the event along with all the school’s art teachers. She sees the student art show as an opportunity to show parents and residents the extent of the Windham art program.

“It validates the art program and highlights the incredible artwork that the kids do,” Blanchard said. “It really educates the public. They can see the learning on the wall.”

This “learning on the wall” is an intricate part of the Windham art program which works to integrate art with the general classroom.

“Most of the curriculum for grades K-8 connects with our program,” Blanchard said. “For example, when they study the explorers, I focus in on the tall ships, having the kids paint watercolors (of the ships). The primary school did an Egyptian unit. There is a science unit where the kids have to create an invention and so we have a unit that focuses on Leonardo DaVinci. It is somewhat discipline-based, yet we don’t want to be so integrated that we start to hinder their individual creativity.”

At the Primary and Middle School, art is a mandatory class taken once a week by the children. Many students continue their art education through high school by taking classes as fine arts electives. This past March, the Portland Museum of Art featured work by Windham High School artists Matt Boothby, Dorson Plourde and Scott Whiting as part of Youth Art Month. Their work was on display at the show along with the Youth Art Month awards they received.

Colleen Kearney-Graffam teaches art at the high school along with Jeff Bell and Kim Chasse. She has many art foundation classes including Art 1 and 2, printmaking, drawing, painting and sculpture. She sees art as a ‘whole brain experience.’

“It’s a balancing act,” Graffam said. “Not only are you asking kids to come up with something from their heart and experience, but also to execute it in a technically interesting and aesthetically pleasing way.”

This is the fifth annual art show the Windham Art Department has held. In years past, the show has been held at the Manchester and Windham Middle School. Blanchard hopes to promote the arts through the art show “so the public sees how incredible the fine arts are in Windham.”

“It’s so important that they have the arts and you can see that on the walls,” Blanchard said, “In our modern society, we don’t create anymore. Everything is done for us. If we don’t create, we lose our creativity. It’s so important that we have idea people with creativity in a high-tech world. We try to show children how they can use it in their real life, in the real world. I don’t think the public realizes how important (art) really is or what it would be like without it. It reflects our culture. It’s a mirror of our culture. All through history, art has highlighted societies. The world would be very empty without it.”

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