Best Fine Arts Night ever!

Fine Arts Night '14 is in the books, and I think it was the best one to date - so much to hear, see, do! This music and art celebration is a tradition every year, but this time around the music teacher and I added a few new exciting components as you will soon see, starting with a push for families to share on social networking sites to expand our audience. We placed posters all around with our blogging,  Twitter, and Instagram accounts posted with QR codes for quick access (#dolvinFAN). We set up a live stream of the chorus concert for families to watch from wherever they were, and we could watch live from the art show at the opposite end of the building - very cool indeed.

We set up several group art stations around the show - it was really fun to see the enthusiasm for creating among the kids and parents - here are some of the stations:

 This graffiti stitching station was such a hit and it really thrilled me to walk by and see a half dozen kids at once, sitting around this burlap sheet sewing together! Such a great skill to know and a wonderful tradition to honor in this age of technology.

 Free Art Friday station - yes! Next week I will be posting the details on this one, but basically we organized a bunch of saved recyclables in the art room and the kids made themselves a kit to take home to build a monster, which will be "dropped" next Friday for our event. See the sidebar label "Free Art Friday" for a breakdown from last year.

The Selfie Spot was stolen from the Thomas Elementary Art blog and the kids were filling them up faster than my 17 yo daughter Kinsey could crank them out! We also tried a grid collage mural based on Chuck Close and Paul Klee's works - this one needs a little editing before I post the result ;). I cut all of our painting mats from the year into 3" squares for this and I fell in love with them - maybe I'll wallpaper my powder room?

 Artist Fan letters were also fun -  I expected parents to write them, which they did, but it surprised me to find a number of very sweet friend-to-friend notes, including one above for a friend in the hospital. Lainey always has the best ideas. **update - these letters are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Knights-Smartest-Artists.

The chorus concert was called Disney Spectacular, and we all pitched in to paint a Mary Blair inspired backdrop, a premiere illustrator for Disney. I love the Mary Poppins figure flying over the moon and here are a couple of chimney sweeps that stopped by the art show post concert.

I will end the post with some pics from the art show itself and a few other shots. The frames are provided by the Artome company - they really make a professional looking show. Frames are available for purchase for $25, although the art is not for sale - it belongs to the artists! Thanks so much for being a part of our online audience!