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Cottonwood Heights Journal

Canyon View art night allows students to showcase talent, explore creativity

Jul 24, 2024 01:07PM ● By Julie Slama

Canyon View fifth-grader Lennon Reyna played her guitar alongside Canyon View Elementary’s choir during the school art night. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

Fifth-grader Lennon Reyna strummed the guitar, accompanying Canyon View Elementary’s choir.

The fourth year choir member learned the guitar three years ago and jumped at the chance to play during their performance at the year-end art night.

The 70-member second- through fifth-grade choir sang a selection of songs to a packed multipurpose room; it was one of their final performances.

“This is a special night for us because it’s an opportunity for the entire community to come and support our arts program from the incredible performance of our choir to their amazing artwork that graces our hallways,” school principal Kierstin Draper said. “We have our state and national merit Reflections’ winners entries on display, a photography slideshow, and opportunities to do some hands-on art tonight. Much of the artwork on display is done in conjunction with the Beverley Taylor Sorenson program.”

That program reinforces learning subjects, such as math, science, social studies and topics in students’ curriculum, through art.

For example, first graders studied butterflies and their habitats so a corresponding art project was learning about the symmetry of their wings by painting half of a butterfly, folding the paper and seeing the other half appear identical to the first. The students added chalk pastel to add vibrant color to their butterfly’s wings.

Students also learned about artists, such as when fourth graders learned about abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky by creating fun, colorful bouquets. They created their flower collages by using warm and cool colors they learned about to create contract and focus. They also experimented with sponge painting their backgrounds. 

Third graders also got to try their hand at new art styles when they learned about printmaking and got to try it firsthand. They designed a city scape and placed it on top of printing foam before carving their image into the foam. Then, they added a sunset and water background using watercolor or chalk pastels. When they completed those steps, the students rolled ink on to their foam plate and placed it onto the background paper. Their final step was to remove the paper and press the two sides of the paper together creating a reflection of their city scape in water.

Those and more—from pop art to birch and aspen trees—inspired crowds of patrons gathered around the displays. Many more packed the interactive art such as the LEGO print press, black light art, rock art and jewelry making.

Debbie Armstrong was with her granddaughters, Amelia and Goldie.

She had just watched third-grader Goldie sing in the choir and now, was letting the girls explore some hands-on art projects.

“People need to have creativity; life is boring without using art,” she said.

Goldie likes being creative.

“You can make whatever you want,” she said. “If you’re sad, then you can make a rainy day or if you’re happy, you can make a sunshine. If you don’t want to say emotions, you can draw them instead.”

She was still pumped from the choir performance.

“When I grew up, I really want to be a singer, so choir helps me make that moment come true because I love singing in front of people,” Goldie said.

Jackson Taggart also came to hear his third-grade daughter, Faye, sing in the choir and see her art as well as that of his first-grader, Cal.

“This is a great opportunity for the kids to showcase their artistic ability and for the adults to meet the parents of their friends and build that sense of community,” he said. “This really encourages kids to explore their creative side. It’s just good when they’re given a task and some direction to follow, but they can explore that further with their creativity.”