It's two weeks into the school year, and the Morgan County High School Art Department has already held an art show.
Paintings, collages, sketches, even three-dimensional artworks graced the walls of the Morgan County Board of Education boardroom last Thursday, and it became clear that local high school art students don't have a problem expressing themselves.
Art teacher Ty Manning recalled how he compelled his students to produce works for the show: "I said, 'We've got an art show, so make art!' And they did."

The Legacies
Dubbed "The Legacy Pieces" by Manning, last week's show centered around the artworks of five of last year's seniors: Gareth Newton, Shelby McLeod, Mary Helen Trulock, Dylan Davis and Christina Turner.
A present in honor of their graduation, Manning gave each of his 10 International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement seniors a canvas on the last day of school. He also gave them an assignment: to create pieces, over the summer, to be used in the show. He got back half of the canvases, all of which will continuously hang in the Board of Education building. Manning, citing the lack of art on the walls in the building, hopes to make this a tradition.
Newton came down from Athens, where he is attending the University of Georgia, to visit with Manning and spoke a bit about his artwork.
"I went to a concert with my girlfriend," Newton said, about where he got the idea for the dancing figures in his artwork. "Then I drew that. I thought it looked cool."
The Keith Haring-inspired painting took Newton three days to complete. When he brought it back to Manning earlier in the summer, the art teacher liked it so much, he borrowed it for a little while.
"I hung it up in my house," Manning said.

Matters of the Art

By Kathryn Schiliro
Managing Editor

At Morgan County Middle and High schools, the end of the 2008-2009 regular school year and onset of the summer holiday didn’t mean empty halls. Both schools hosted summer school programs to allow students who fell behind in their classes to make-up coursework, and students took advantage of the opportunity.

Morgan County Middle School

At Morgan County Middle School, 32 students were enrolled and attended summer school, which ran for two weeks – from June 8 to June 19.
Of those 32 students, 28 recovered credit, according to Kemberly Williams, Morgan County Middle School’s summer school administrator. Last year, 88 students enrolled and attended summer school, and 80 recovered credit.
Because classes are based on Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) – or recently implemented Georgia Department of Education-sanctioned curriculum meant to bring the state up to speed with the nation in terms of education – the student must master the standards to pass the class. The amount of time spent in summer school is based on how many of the standards a student has demonstrated he/she grasps; whether the student came in knowing all but one of the standards or none, mastering the standards means passing the class.
“Students who are retained in their grade for failing two or three year-long classes can attend summer school to make-up credit,” Williams said, in an e-mail correspondence. “The students are taught GPS standards. Depending on the number of classes failed, the student may have to attend a full day or half-day.”
This year, four teachers taught the sixth, seventh and eighth grade summer school classes, and charter funding was used to cover the costs of summer school at Morgan County Middle School.

By Kathryn Schiliro
Photos by Angelina Bellebuono

Seated on the stage in downtown Rutledge in the midday heat, slightly sweaty, fully costumed children formed a circle and began pounding on their homemade drums. Allowed to keep any beat they wished, the drumming circle marked the culmination of the fourth day of "Summer Fusion," a percussion camp sponsored by the Rutledge Recreation Department and led by Eva Young, a yoga instructor at the local Back to Wellness Clinic.
Though they spent a large part of the week in groups learning about upbeats and downbeats from different parts of the globe, most were attentive to the group's cadence; they were, after all, promised shaved ices from The Caboose at the end of the day.
The world came to Rutledge last week in the form of local children, and a whole lot of rhythm.

Drum-ing Up Students

Young led a well-attended art and drama camp for Rutledge's younger residents last summer. After its success, Young planned for a music camp, which ended up evolving into something more specific.
"Cortini and I started talking about how cool it would be to move into rhythms," Young said.
And last week's Summer Fusion camp was born, bringing in about 30 local children between 5 and 12 years old.
Young didn't have a big budget for publicizing the event, so she spread the word through flyers, e-mails and phone calls. Given last year's success, the word-of-mouth about the camp happened on its own.
"I didn't turn anyone away," Young said.

By Kathryn Schiliro; Managing Editor
Photos by Angelina Bellebuono

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