Arts Festival Week 2021

Solebury School celebrates the arts every spring with a week-long festival, capped off with Workshop Day on the final day. 

Guest Artist Clairo

Students had the exciting opportunity to chat with singer-songwriter Clairo. She talked about touring with Khalid, what it's like being a female artist, and answered lots of questions. When asked what she wished she knew when she was 17/18 and what she might say to her younger self Clairo shared, "Intuition is a lot more important than I thought. Following that feeling has helped me become who I am now."

Guest Artist/Alumnae Alliyah Allen ’14

Alliyah shared her journey of pursuing a career in art and activism. She is the Program Coordinator for New Arts Justice at Express Newark, an incubator for art and activism, an Assistant Curator of Monument Lab, and the Co-Founder of LAND Collective. 

Her curatorial and artistic practice focus on the experiences, narratives, healing practices, and transformational image practices surrounding blackness, history, spirituality, and womanhood. Allyiah draws inspiration from revolutionary artists such as Toni Morrison, Deborah Willis, Simone Leigh and believes in capturing the beauty, presence, and light of her collaborators, which in turn becomes a radical act to rewrite singular narratives, reclaim power and thrive in liberation.

“Art is a reflection of the times. Art is the bridge that opens up the conversation. Art can be used for advocacy. It can be used for messaging and to teach people—it can express both. It’s an entry point for larger conversation and to be more inclusive and rewrite those narratives that are commonly misplaced.”

 

Workshop Day

• Tile Art - Made tiles for the art stairwell to leave their mark on campus for generations to come. 
• Photojournalist Guests - Met with Martin Shields and Mark Gibson, veteran photojournalist in Scotland, who talked about how they get the shot and what it’s really like.
• Recycled Books - Made books from simple supplies found in the recycling bin.
• Black Out Poetry - Blacked out words in existing books that left the words of their own poem.
• Improvisational Acting - Learned the art of improvisation.
• Prayer Flags - Created messages of hope and peace. 
• Nature Photo Walk - Walked along the wooded trails on campus to capture landscapes and plant portraits. 
• Mural Painting - Helped paint a student designed mural. 
• Free Form Mural Painting - Allowed participants to let their creativity flow without the structure of lines. 
• Tie Dye - Made colorful shirts using different tie dye techniques. 
• Chalk Art Competition - Created an original work or recreated a famous work of art to submit. 
   

Check out our 2019 Arts Festival Week!