Collaborative Grade Level Auction Art

Pre-K artists explored how art can express identity, inspire creativity, and reflect a future filled with possibilities. They began by looking at themselves in the mirror, observing the shapes and features that make up their faces. Using black markers, they sketched their self-portraits, capturing their unique characteristics. They were introduced to the work of American fiber artist Bisa Butler, known for using vibrant and expressive colors in her portraits to tell powerful stories. Inspired by Butler's colorful and dynamic style, the young artists then brought their self-portraits to life with watercolor paints, incorporating bold, imaginative colors that represented their individual personalities and dreams.

Kindergarten artists explored the shape of stars as symbols of hope and possibility. They began by learning how to draw a star, then transformed their drawing into a stencil. Working with ceramic clay, they added texture and shape, rolling, pressing, and experimenting with tools to create rich patterns. Using their stencils, they cut out star shapes and brought their creations to life with metallic paints, adding a touch of sparkle. These stars reflect the students' creativity and the bright futures that await them.

This first-grade art piece celebrates the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance, an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, and theater that flourished during the 1920s. Drawing inspiration from iconic artists like Jacob Lawrence, Aaron Douglas, and Romare Bearden, students explored expressive silhouettes, dynamic action poses, printmaking, and collage techniques in art class. They also studied movement and form in performing arts, experimenting with body shapes to create positive and negative spaces. Finally, each student’s expressive silhouette was laser-cut and paired with their individual prints to create a striking composition. This piece captures both the energy of the past and the bright futures our students are building.

Our second-grade artists explored the art of weaving, discovering how two sets of threads—warp and weft—interlace at right angles to form fabric. As they wove, they became immersed in the rhythmic process, embracing the calming repetition and finding their creative groove. With sharp focus and imagination flowing, each student transformed simple jewelry boxes into mini looms, experimenting with vibrant colors, textures, and patterns. Gold threads were woven through the horizontal strands to create one-of-a-kind designs. The result? Beautiful, thoughtful creations that reflect the spirit of creativity, perseverance, and the bright futures this building has nurtured for a century.

In celebration of a century of architectural inspiration, this collection of relief tiles brings the geometric elegance of Art Deco facades into the hands of young creators. Drawing from iconic building exteriors, third-grade artists imagined a future built on creativity and innovation. Each tile is crafted from clay, sculpted with coils, spheres, and textures to echo geometric forms. Repetition creates rhythm, while metallic paints add depth and luster, blending past influences with future possibilities. These young artists channel the spirit of Art Deco, where structure and style shape a bright, bold future.

Drawing inspiration from the vibrant 1920s California Impressionism movement and the legacy of Richard Mayhew, an artist whose life spanned 100 years, fourth-grade artists explored how a place makes them feel. They created expressive needle-felted landscapes that reflect both historical influences and their personal interpretations of California’s natural beauty. Using needle felting techniques to create texture and layer color, each landscape captures the beauty of the natural world while conveying the students’ unique connections to the landscapes that surround them.

Fifth-grade artists explored the visual language of Art Deco to create their Light and Line art pieces. They studied how geometric forms, symmetry, and repetition within this design movement create elegance and impact, then applied this lens to the front of the school. Through a photo essay, students captured the architectural features of our school building, focusing on lines, light, and structure. From their visual study, each student selected a meaningful line or shape to form the foundation of a 3D model in Tinkercad. Inspired by the theme of "100"— students incorporated repetition, rhythm, and symbolic numeration into their designs. These final pieces are not only aesthetic expressions but uniquely personal ones, reflecting each student’s relationship to time, memory, and the role the school plays in their individual journeys.

In the 1920s, the surrealism art movement emerged, with artists like Salvador Dalí and René Magritte exploring the relationship between dreams and reality. Inspired by these artists, sixth graders created their own "Surreal Selfies" by taking photographs of themselves in poses and facial expressions that represented their unique personalities. These selfies were then transformed into mini-masterpieces, with artists collaging different elements to create dreamlike, imaginative compositions that blend reality and fantasy. Through this project, students explored the surrealist themes of how dreams and reality can intertwine, resulting in a reflection of their own selves in a fantastical, artistic way.