Hawken Hosts CCIS Arts Festival

Hawken School`s Visual and Performing Arts Department, under the direction of Department Chair Denise Buckley, welcomed 180 students to its Gates Mills campus on Friday and Saturday, April 24 and 25, to participate in the Cleveland Council of Independent School`s Arts Festival. The festival is one of the many ways in which CCIS lives out its mission of "promoting, supporting, and enhancing the value of independent education in Northeast Ohio through the facilitation of meaningful collaboration." Students from seven CCIS schools - Hawken, Laurel, Hathaway Brown, Ruffing Montessori, Ratner, University School, and Western Reserve Academy - took part in various arts workshops including basket making, bookmaking, mural design, creative drumming, hip hop, African dance, silk painting, comedy improv, salsa dancing and a variety of other options as well. Instructors/artists were brought in from outside the schools in order to facilitate a broad variety of offerings and to enable faculty participation in the workshops. In addition to the workshops, there were lunchtime jazz performances by Hawken and University Schools and evening one-act, dance, and music performances by Hawken, Laurel, Hathawy Brown, and University Schools. Anne Kmieck, upper school art teacher, likened the campus to the 1980s film "Fame," which was set in a highly competitive arts high school in New York City. "It was energizing to see professionals push highly talented students out of their comfort zones and have them try new things in front of new peers," Kmieck added. The event provided all of the student and faculty participants a wonderful opportunity to meet new friends, to showcase talents, and to explore new venues for artistic expression. As an added bonus for Hawken for their generosity in facilitating and hosting the festival, a once drab concrete wall on campus has been transformed into a colorful mural - a vivid reminder of the transforming power of collaborative arts. To view photos of the event, click here.