For at least five years, Arts Alive has taken place at HR, where students can participate in many different forms of art. Arts Alive is an open house art show where families and students can come and look at what their student has worked hard to create. With around 1,000 people who come and view the art and listen to the music that the performing arts department has put together, it’s a really popular event during the school year.

  When selecting the art for the show, anyone can submit their art, it’s an open invitation. This year, 250 artists entered their work in the show. Students can use many different mediums for their art; charcoal is one example. Gabby Johnson, junior, said, “I mostly do drawing and painting but my favorite medium is charcoal. I really like how complicated it is because it’s so easy to smudge.”

  Arts Alive has been a recurring event and improvements have been made over time. Jon Cushing, drawing and painting teacher, said, “I think as much as anything, we’ve been trying to refine things and make things a little bit better.”

  There were many different types of art featured at Arts Alive. Included at the show on April 25th, were drawings, paintings, sculptures, photography, and musical performances put on by band, orchestra, and choir students.

  “One year we wanted a carnival kind of atmosphere, and so there was a lot of small performances in different places, almost like sideshows. Now, I think the Performing Arts department has realized that they’re better to have only one or two stages. From the fine arts side, visual arts, nothing has really changed. It’s just refreshing to see all the new pieces of artwork that come year in and year out,” said Cushing.

  Choir practiced for weeks to make sure the songs they were performing were perfect for others to listen to. Chloé Spann, sophomore and a member of concert choir, said, “I feel like our songs were really upbeat and fun. ‘Baba Yetu’ was such a good and happy song and everyone was clapping and dancing along to it. It was very upbeat.”

  According to Erika Ankenbrandt, junior, her experience at Arts Alive was great and she enjoyed looking at all the art. Ankenbrandt said, “It was really cool, there was a lot of cool art to look at.”