The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Sisters High School (SHS) was transformed into a unique collaboration of the arts Tuesday evening, March 19, as students, teachers, and guests gathered together for the annual art night event.

ART-i-facts benefits the full spectrum of high school arts programs.

The event is a way to bring the arts community together with education to showcase what students have been working on for the last year.

Bethany Gunnarson, SHS art instructor, said, “It’s for all ages and we hope to promote creativity and interaction with community members who attend. There are lots of hands-on art stations for people to create and have fun!”

Guests meandered through the student art exhibits, displays, and interactive stations from cupcakes to canvases that were all manned by volunteer SHS art students.

There were creative senior art displays, luthier/woods classes displays, a potter’s wheel, silkscreen T-shirts for sale that students designed and created, painting tables, jewelry tables, henna tattoos, face painting, paint dart mural, a drawing station, and of course art for display and for sale.

While Gunnarson directed the visual arts, music teacher Rick Johnson coordinated the audio portion of the program, with performances by the Sisters High School Jazz Choir, the High School Band, and the Americana Project.

All ages enjoyed designing homemade cupcake toppings prepared by students of the SHS culinary arts program, under the guidance of their teacher TR McCrystal.

This event allows community members who might not attend the choir, band, or Americana Project concerts to experience the students’ music.

“Art night allows all the arts departments in the school to be enjoyed together at one event,” noted Johnson. “As community members are admiring the incredible art created by the art department, woods department, and culinary department, they can listen to the Jazz Choir and Band and songwriters from the Americana Project.”

This year the art department added an interactive Chinese calligraphy table where anyone can learn the art of writing Chinese featuring the visiting Chinese teachers. This visual art form was prized above all others in traditional China.

“It’s not just calligraphy, it’s our language,” Annie, one of the visiting teachers from China, said. “We call it a culture activity. We use a special brush and use black ink. The brush is shaped like a tear drop and you need to control it using your hands.”