By Danielle Smith
Staff Writer
Mira Costa’s Advanced Ceramics and Sculpture Class designed a themed collaboration show “Night” with Art that will be open May 23 to 27 at lunch in Room 63. The gallery space will be filled with both large scale 3-dimensional art and projected digital art created and curated by students in both classes.
For about a month, Costa students in all grade levels have been preparing to showcase their artwork in the first ever collaboration show between the two classes. Sculpture students labored over a variety of different aspects to create ambiance in the gallery while art students created stop motion videos to be projected onto the walls.
“I am excited about this show in particular because a couple of students have approached me in the past wanting to do a digital projection show,” Art 1-3 and AP Studio Teacher Ms. Katherine Martin said. “It’s a great way to integrate technology into art class and it’s the first large scale collaboration show involving both installation and animation.”
This show is made possible by the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation’s new Teachers Driving Innovation Grant. The grant was initiated this year to allow teachers to apply for funding for an innovative project unattainable without funding. Martin and Advanced Ceramics Teacher Jon Reichardt applied for the grant to purchase digital projectors.
“We really wanted to incorporate more digital aspects into our classes to give students a unique chance to explore another medium,” Martin said. “We received the grant and when the projectors were delivered this spring we were very excited to curate a show to utilize the new technology.”
Both classes are working separately on their individual responsibilities, and then coming together at the end to create a cohesive presentation. Student leaders, senior Hana Rothner from the Advanced Sculpture and Ceramics class and sophomore Seia Watanabe from Art 3, were selected to assist the teachers, create a diverse and dynamic interpretation of the open-ended theme “Night”, and help classmates with technical difficulties.
“I am helping Ms. Martin organize the show by ensuring students stay focused on their projects and coordinating with the ceramics,” Watanabe said. “I am also helping put all of the stop-motion videos together in iMovie to create a continuous loop that will be projected onto the walls.”
The sculpture class split into groups to focused on different aspects of the design and plan the gallery layout to utilize the space effectively. One wall depicts a desert scene with a neon sign, another features wire people standing on a sidewalk with projected cars racing by, and the third has pingpong balls strung from the ceiling with projected plants.
“Reichardt gave us a gallery and projectors to do whatever we wanted with and a few ideas went around, but we quickly agreed on the theme “Night” and knew we wanted to ask the Art classes to help us out,” Rothner said. “We took everyone’s ideas and incorporated them into one cohesive idea and I can’t wait to see the product.”
Art students worked individually or in pairs to create stop motion videos using the app iMotion to be projected onto one of the gallery’s walls. The only requirement was that it had to relate to the theme “Night” and according to Ms. Martin each student interpreted the theme in their own unique way.
“Both classes have put a ton of hard work into their projects,” Reichardt said. “I think a lot of students will be intrigued to come see how the collaboration between videos and sculptures works. Hopefully there’s a great turn out and students not involved in art will be inspired to join!”
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