SAR Academy arts festival showcases student creativity and learning

Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy celebrated the end of its school year with its May 19 Interactive Arts Festival — a busy evening that showcased months of learning through music performances, hands-on activities and more than a dozen art exhibits by first through eighth grade students.

The academy said its arts education draws from an essay by Rabbi Chaim Brovender, a Torah educator, called “Toward Ahavat Hashem: Art and Religious Experience.” In it, Brovender explains that the study of arts “may be valuable in developing the religious personality and enabling the student to enter dialogue with heaven.”

One of the first exhibits started outside the school, with “Chalk the Walk,” on its entryway sidewalk, inviting passersby to draw their own doodles. Once inside, the room buzzed with families conversing, surrounded by works that spanned graffiti, weaving, photography and sculptures of figures in athletic motion.

Eli Shmuckler was one of the fourth graders who used cardboard, Styrofoam, wire, foil and wood to make a model. Some showed runners, tennis players or skiers, but Eli kept his work close to the heart with a replica of Jalen Brunson, captain and point guard of the New York Knicks, in action.

Eli’s mom, Shimrit Hait, grew up in Riverdale and attended SAR as a kid. She said she appreciated that the academy supports artistic and musical creativity.

“It’s really about nurturing all the children and making sure to meet everybody’s interests where they are,” Hait said.

Similar thoughts were shared by several other parents, like Edith Englard, who said it is exciting to see the children’s work all come together. Her son, Charles, is interested in art, something Englard said is important to foster.

Charles and other first graders exhibited linework drawings, with unexpected shapes filled in with vibrant color. Charles said he likes art because it’s calming.

Second grader Nessia Howard is also a budding artist, who used oil pastels to create an image of a pear, given depth by highlights and shadows. Though it was hard to shape the fruit, Nessia said she enjoyed the shading process. When she’s not using oil pastels, Nessia said she “usually doesn’t have the time to paint,” but she does draw a lot.

Other students who weren’t a part of the art program used the arts festival to highlight other talents, such as poetry, singing or playing the recorder. One young poet, second grader Grace Rose Blach, said she took inspiration from her grandfather, Charles Korn, who also liked to write poems. Grace said she wasn’t scared when it came time to recite her poem, and she had fun sharing it.

Korn said it was special that Grace and other kids were given the opportunity to develop distinct talents, noting similar programs were absent when he was in school himself.   

Fourth grade singer Kira Schwab was nervous for her performance, explaining that she was a bit too giggly while she was up on stage.

“My mom was smiling too much, which made me smile too much,” she said.

Her dad, Jonathan Schwab was happy to witness his daughter in action, bringing out an outgoing part of her personality.

“It’s really great to see this side of her that she doesn’t always express at home, but really could develop at school,” Jonathan Schwab said. “And a chance for her to perform it for other people.”

To transform the school into an art gallery and a music hall, it “took a village,” the academy’s director of arts and enrichment, Sharon Black, explained. Black noted that the kids were visibly excited to share the work they had done with their parents, and Black was appreciative that the academy places clear value on the arts.

Art teacher Noel Guessen was also instrumental in pulling the evening together, saying “it starts with a map” to separate disciplines by room, along with help from about a dozen other faculty members. Guessen is the only full-time art teacher, and is able to work with the kids from first grade all the way to eighth grade — time he uses to gradually expand the kids’ skillsets.

“When I’m teaching second grade observational drawing, I know I’m planting a seed for mechanical drawing in seventh grade,” Guessen explained.

He added one of the most interesting exhibits to him is the fifth grade intergenerational family heirloom project, or “Dor L’Dor,” which translates to “from generation to generation.” The kids created digitally layered collages to tell a story,  Guessen said. Another is the sixth grade graffiti exhibit, a two-part project where students draw their own moniker, or tag. One version turns into a digital print, and the other the students draw onto a skateboard using a different technique.

But, at its core, teaching art isn’t just about cultivating future creatives. Most of the students will never go on to become artists, Guessen said, and his job is more to build out abilities kids will use no matter their career paths — how to express themselves, how to present, how to think bigger.

“I don’t really teach art,” Guessen said. “I’m teaching problem solving, I’m teaching perseverance, I’m teaching for the next thing they are offered … Art just happens to be the vehicle for all this other learning.”