Zea Andrews and her son Silas Ingold look for his drawing at the Garfield Elementary School community art show May 9, 2024. The show featured both two dimensional and three dimensional artworks created by the students laid out like an art gallery for them and their parents to enjoy. (Austin Fleskes / Loveland Reporter-Herald)
During the day Thursday, Garfield Elementary School functioned like many of the other teaching establishments in Loveland. But by night, the school was transformed into an art gallery, featuring the works of the students who walk the halls.
The school — which is one of the Thompson School District’s Loveland area Integrated School of the Arts, or LISA, schools — held its annual community art show Thursday night, during which students brought their parents to show off the work they created as well as see the creations of their fellow students.
“Its a way to showcase what we have been working on all year,” said Kelsey Ciotola, an art teacher at the elementary school.
Laura Bess, arts integration coordinator at the school, said every year Garfield holds the show to bring in parents, students, neighbors and other community members to show off work that kids create over the year.
This year’s art matched the theme of music, which the school and its teachers were integrating into the classroom to help deepen students understanding with learning.
Students from each grade were tasked with creating a both a two-dimensional and a three-dimensional piece of artwork with the theme of the color of sound. The result was a vast array of coloring and clay-fired art pieces, from drawings of xylophones and guitars to clay music notes and small singing creatures, all laid out Thursday night like an art gallery.
“It is part of the experience,” Ciotola said of having the event like a gallery. “You spend all this time creating something and putting time and effort into it. To have it on display, it warms your heart a little bit. It is a proud moment for them, I hope.”
While many of the students were quiet or shy when talking about their work, their parents said getting to see the creations set up like an art gallery was a fun experience.
“He’s very creative, (and here) I get to actually see what he’s been working on and he’s excited to show it to us,” said Robin Adams, who’s son Henry showed off his pieces as they walked around the gym.
Zea Andrews, who previously served as a LISA coordinator from 2012 to 2023, said it was cool for her to see the changes to the event since she had helped run it in the past. Her 6-year-old son Silas Ingold was part of the show, happily pointing to his xylophone drawing once he was able to find it along the wall of art. Andrews said there was “an emotional connection to see your own child create their own work.”
“It’s awesome,” said Silas’ father Brandon Ingold, adding that in written praise for his sons work, which anyone could fill out and turn in during the event, he wrote “the sound pops off the page.”
The event also included a silent auction, featuring a table of various work from local artists. Bess said the proceeds from the auction go right back into Garfield’s LISA programs.
The selection included work from artist Michaela Zochniak, who also was volunteering with the auction and whose son is a third grader at the school. She said that she donates art to the show every year because of what it does for the kids.
“It raises money for the kiddos to do extra things and extra after school programs within the community,” she said.
For the teachers involved, the event and Garfield’s work as a LISA school make an impression on the students who take part in it.
“We are really developing the whole child, and that is what you see when you come here,” said Principal Kathy Sather. “You see art that took more than a single period with really deep thought and meaning put together with it.”
Ciotola said it was great to see the kids come through and even greater to see them go through the artistic process throughout the school year.
“It is my favorite thing, that is why I love to be an art teacher,” she said. “To see the process they go through when creating stuff and the little amazing moments they encounter, that is why I teach art.”
“Garfield is like a little hidden treasure in our community,” Bess said. “We are a small school but we are mighty.”
