GRANTS - The main hall at Grants High School resembled the Louvre Museum as the countywide arts festival opened March 13. Artworks from all district schools and St. Theresa's Catholic School festooned the hallway as musical groups serenaded the visitors and the Culinary Arts classes served canap�©s and desserts to the crowd of more than 400 visitors.

Kayleigh Henneman, a Milan Elementary student, gets help from her mom before music performance. BEACON / COURTESY

Home schooled students as well as St. Joseph's Catholic School and tribal schools had also been invited to participate.

District art Specialist Jeanne Black organized the event with the cooperation of the district office and art teachers throughout the district.

The Los Alamitos Middle School eighth grade band and choir, and the Grants High School concert band, choir and jazz band all provided musical offerings to the attendees. Under the baton of GHS Music Director Bill Griner, the GHS concert band performed “Astro Overture” by sight reading, meaning that the musicians had never played the selection before the Friday night debut.

“Sight reading is an important part of music education and is included in our content standards,” reads a section of the program.

John Miller of Mesa View Elementary School led his students and students from Milan Elementary School in singing, accompanied by Indian drums. Two piano soloists, Jocelyn Little Bear and Fabian Abeyta, entertained the crowd.

The visual arts were represented by paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculpture, woodwork, photography and metalwork from students from kindergarten through grade 12. The wide corridor with a two-story ceiling provided ample space for the artwork, some of which was suspended from the ceiling.

Works from students at Laguna-Acoma High School and Cubero Elementary School greeted the visitor near the doorway. Small acrylic paintings from LAHS depicted landscapes, fantasy figures and cartoon characters. Both Phillip Marmalejo and Kyle Aragon chose Kachina motifs for their paintings, while Mercedes Vicente and Ned Beecher had created ceramic animal figures. Michael Serracino won the Student Choice award for his charcoal portrait.

The work from the Cubero E.S. kindergarten classes was full of the exuberant use of color. Andrea Leno created a very colorful abstract painting in tempura, while Untiva Garcia offered an interesting color block painting.

Seboyeta Elementary School displayed geometric crayon creations and two of the outstanding artists are Marcos Marquez and Ariana Armijo. Second grade watercolorist Audrey Cheromiah depicted volcanoes, while first grader Danielle Lopez painted colorful flowers.

Older students at Seboyeta did studies of the pueblos at sunset and some of these works are stunning.

Milan Elementary School offered papier mache, geometric rubber stamp prints, pastel works and tempura paintings. Two of the remarkable paintings are “The Colorful Mountain” by fifth grader Joe Ray Aragon and “Lighthouse” by Joseph Mankee.

Milan art teacher Beth Head explained the variety of arts projects undertaken by her students.

Crayon and collage creations were displayed by San Rafael Elementary School. Ramon Galindo colored abstract forms while Anastacia Gonzales chose to create a fish. Iysha Melton's collage features hearts in pink paper.

Mount Taylor Elementary School showed a variety of artworks in crayon, pencil and tempura. Shaundeen Cala depicted a female figure with wild hair titled “Crazy” and Matthew Charles created a fearsome dragon figure in pencil. There were also abstract forms, such as Ryan Lopez's “Fishy Dream” and Christina Makres “Lazy Cat” in crayon.

Bluewater Elementary School displayed a number of collages, including an outstanding version of a kachina face by Randi Spencer. The student artists also offered tessellations, works which match one side of the picture to the other in a “puzzle piece” manner and help to develop math concepts.

Mesa View Elementary School displayed “warm and cool” double paintings, which feature warms colors, such as yellow opposite cool colors, such as blue. The second grade class contributed depictions of New Mexico symbols, such as roadrunners, mesas and the Zia symbol. Roy Bip's series of rainbows was executed in crayon and watercolor.

Mesa View's art teacher Margaret Bland explained her approach to teaching.

“In grades three through six, I start the kids on line drawings as a warm up exercise and then we use mannequins to learn the concept of negative space. My art program teaches technical art skills with a focus on supporting education's academic goals, such as learning language, math, science and social studies. The program is necessarily process driven because there is so much to cover and experience,” she said.

Los Alamitos Middle School featured some striking portraits of historical figures, including Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon and William Shakespeare. Art instructors Cynthia Gail and Daniel Bland had inspired their students to also paint tempura portraits of second century Romans

Another LAMS display showed “upside down” drawings done in the styles of Picasso, Chagall and Van Gogh, including a particularly striking work by Payden Scarbro.

Teacher Bland noted, “The students are exposed to basic design projects and are taught that all subjects cross over in art. To unlock the students' inner self, art education provides the key to a life-long awareness of the self.”

Grants High School produced a variety of works in several media. Enthusiastic art teacher Ellie MacDonald explained that a construction replicating the Epcot Center at Disney World was made by John Chamberlain using 270 square sections of folded paper.

MacDonald showed the sculptures of human figures, which had all been made from recycled materials. Some of the sculptures were suspended from the ceiling. “Beauty made the Beast” by Janelle Hands was one the most arresting of these works.

An exhibit of the GHS photography class showed “pin hole” cameras that the students had constructed. The display also showed the steps in the photographic process. There were also several large paintings by GHS artists, including two rock 'n roll inspired works and a ceremonial scene, which includes kachinas, dancers, pueblos, pots and buffalo and deer dancers.

St. Theresa's Catholic School contributed many works with religious themes, including crosses and Stars of David. There were also charming ceramic figures, such as the pigs created by Nathaniel and Bryan Cruz.

The Arts Fair was a banquet for local art lovers and many professional artists attended the event. Jeanne Black and all the art teachers did a terrific job of showing the variety of arts pursued in local schools.