Arts Festival Week 2018

A decades-long Solebury School tradition, Arts Fest offers all students, faculty, and staff the opportunity to immerse themselves in the visual and performing arts for a week each spring.

In addition to the following workshops and activities, every day the Visual Arts Department hosted "Art Around the Crib" activities, including origami, flower headbands, and friendship bracelets.

Recording Studio Visit
Prior to Arts Fest, student musicians auditioned for the chance to record their music at Morningstar Recording Studios with Grammy-winning engineer Glen Barrett. On Monday of Arts Fest, teacher Cathy Block brought a select group, as well as other student musicians who wanted to learn how it's done, to an all-day recording session at the studio. Students left with MP3s of their work. An incredible opportunity!

Duma Film Screening
Film teacher Doug Claybourne hosted a screening of Duma, an all-ages adventure film he produced that told the story of a boy and a domesticated cheetah, set against a gorgeous African backdrop.

Later in the week, Doug hosted a Skype session with the director, Carroll Ballard, where students learned about the making of the film.

Guest Artist / Alum Morgan Rairigh '11
Morgan, a potter and instructor at Kissimmee River Pottery, visited our Ceramics class. Photography teacher Kelli Abdoney shot the beautiful photos below of Morgan's visit.

Guest Artist Peter Callas
At an all-school assembly, Peter Callas hosted a presentation on his work as an Anagama Wood Fired Ceramic Artist. He discussed everything to how he set up his first studio, to a partnership he had with fellow artist Peter Voulkos, to where he finds inspiration (world travel and nature's esoteric details) to how he varies the sizes of his pieces and names them to appeal to buyers (one was even called "Hot Pockets", shown).

T-Shirt Silkscreening
Visual Arts Department Head Erika Fairchild and her Silk-Screening class taught other students how to screen T-shirts.

Workshop Day
All students were able to sign up for the workshop of their choice...

• Calligraphy and Illumination with Elisa Markhoff P'16 '18
• Creating Content for Instagram and Youtube with Mark Eaton
• Drumming with musician John O'Reilly Jr.
• Electronic Music with Michael Melchiondo '18
• Film Director Carroll Ballard (of Duma, see above) Skype session
• Knitting with Hanna Howe (Librarian / Holmquist Dorm Head) and Riley Brady '13 (Director of Activities)
• Papermaking with Frontline Arts
• Pen Brush and Ink with artist Lindsay Neubeck
• Photograms with Kelli Abdoney (Photography teacher)
• Pottery with Morgan Rairigh '11 of Kissimmee River Pottery
• Salsa Dancing with Sharonne Vinokurov
• Silk Screening with Nikita Shchemelev '18
• Skateboard Mosiacs with Peter Martino (Theater Tech Director)
• Tie-Dye with Caitlin Miller '18
• Virtual Reality Painting with Jane LaFarge-Hamill
• Watercolor with artist Pat Singer
• Web Design with Chris Donohue '14, a web developer and architect