Salida students are big art buyers

Four Salida Middle School students; Ethan Coit, Riley Donavan, Michael Procko, and Mackenzie Everett; were selected to take part in The Janus Student Art Buying Program which took place on July 4th at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival.  The program was created in conjunction with the Cherry Creek Arts Festival education department as a way to engage students in an experiential art education program.  Adrienna Everett, the Salida Middle School art teacher said that this was the second year Salida had been honored. “I’m really proud of the kids, they made two great purchases today.  This is a wonderful program and we are really excited to be a part of it.”

The students arrived early Saturday morning and were paired with a volunteer who walked with them as they toured the extensive show. Twenty-four schools throughout the state were awarded the honor.  The students received $500 to buy art for Salida Middle School. Additionally, four schools, of which Salida was one, were granted $1000 to purchase a museum quality piece for the Cherry Creek Mobile Art Gallery.  “It’s been a lot more fun looking at the art knowing you have money to buy something,” said Ethan Coit. The students had four hours to tour the event, interview artists and make their decisions.  All of the schools reconvened in the afternoon before an ad hoc Art Review Board to “defend” their selections and answer questions about their choices. One person in the grand stands commented that calling upon students to give presentations in front of a panel and large crowd might have been more daunting than the actual art selection.

“The art was generally easy to pick because we all agreed that we pretty much liked the same art,” said Ethan Coit, “The hard part was trying to find the few artists we liked the most.”  The Salida students chose to split their money between a sculpture by Ken Peterson, and a watercolor by Vivian Wan-Nien Chao.  They selected a wooden vessel by Joel Hunnicutt,  for the mobile art piece.

The sculpture and painting will be on display at the beginning of the school year.