From James Manno:
After two years of consecutive virtual festivals, the New Jersey Teen Arts Festival (https://www.njteenarts.com/) returned in 2022 in person with vitality and fervor!
On June 1st, 2022, thirty-one Columbia High School Visual Art students took advantage of the opportunity to attend the 2022 NJ Teen Arts Festival at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey. Students were chaperoned by their art teachers Mr. Kirk Maynard (AP Studio Art) and Ms. Kandice Stewart (AP Art History and Art Honors), as well as Visual and Performing Arts Supervisor Mr. James A Manno.
CHS students at NJ Teen Arts Festival
During the two festival days, esteemed young artists, teachers and professional artists from around the state came to critique, as well as to teach workshops and master classes in their individual specialties, including drama, filmmaking, voice, acting, instrumental music and more. Columbia High School students seized the chance to participate in many of the workshops and classes provided.
Prior to the State Festival, at the county level, students in their home schools prepared and practiced their chosen art presentations for critiques and critical analysis, in one or two art disciplines. Students who excelled in their particular art form were selected to be sent to the state level competition. Only students who were invited to participate were adjudicated by state level judges.
Brooke Sockwell and Cameron Dickson
During the State Festival, students who were invited received valuable feedback about their art in group and individual critiques, both written and verbal, and had the option to “sit-in” on the critiques of other emerging artists in their discipline, increasing their educational experience. Professional artists at the Festival provided in-depth critical reviews and analysis of student work, performances and group presentations, a process that all students reported to be most beneficial to their growth as artists.
10th Grade Art 3 Honors student, Samuel Taber-Kewene was nominated by the Essex County Teen Arts Program to exhibit his work “Untitled” at the festival for adjudication.
In addition to the critiques, workshops and master classes were provided to expose student artists to help students develop perceptual, intellectual and technical skills; gain cultural awareness and understanding; and develop personal aesthetic values.
List of participating students:
1. Abramson, Ella
2. Donachie, Bonney
3. Friedland, Daliah
4. Garcia, Susana
5. Offiah, Anthony
6. Perales-Buck, Sofia
7. Rojer, Ellie
8. Rojer, Sasha
9. Rosenthal, Lila
10. Smith-Cooper, Veronica
11. Uhl, Pilar Juliet
12. Zubieta, Imaan
13. Belisle, Evelyn
14. Dickson, Cameron
15. Heindl, Bridget
16. Holdbrook, Roselynn
17. Sylvester Jr, Andre
18. Taber-Kewene, Samuel
19. Abbas, Mariam
20. Agyare, Maxwell
21. Josius, Elisha
22. Doherty, Patrick
23. Spiesel, Berit
24. Aylward, Ruby
25. Haskins, Abby
26. Reiley, Cosgrove
27. Sockwell, Brooke
28. Shivers, Ruby
29. Knutsen, Susanna
30. Kemp, Aidan
31. Stein, Pablo
