North Bellmore students participate in district-wide Art League

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Cassidy Coveny, a sixth-grade student at Martin Avenue Elementary School, perfected her scratch-art illustration of a polar bear by removing black ink from a white sheet of paper. The project, part of North Bellmore School District’s Student Arts League, involved a method of textured shading to create pictures of furry or hairy animals.

Alison Hill, the instructor for both courses, said that the program offers students an opportunity to meet like-minded individuals from the district’s other schools and flex their creative muscles. She added that the visual arts course lets them explore their interests outside of the art classes that are part of each school’s curriculum. “That 40-minute block isn’t enough for them,” she said.

The Student Arts League offers courses in dramatic and visual arts to sixth-grade students in the district. Students are invited to submit a portfolio to the district when they are in fifth-grade and roughly 30 are selected to pursue each program the next year. Classes meet twice a month for three hours at a time.

The visual arts course includes projects such as scratch-art, canvas paintings and mandalas. A mandala, or “circle” in Sanskrit, is a diagram that Tibetan monks would create out of sand in order to represent the universe. Students in the North Bellmore Art League created their mandalas on paper and divided them into segments, each with an illustration the student’s hobbies, culture or interests.

Amber Caba, a sixth-grade student at Martin Avenue Elementary School, explained the meaning behind each picture in the four segments of her mandala. This included a depiction of the stars and moon because of her fascination with the night sky, the ocean because of her love for the beach, a tray of baked goods because of her interest in baking and arts supplies, “obviously, because I like art,” said Caba with a giggle.

She added that she had been drawing since she was a toddler, “but I wasn’t that good. I used to draw people like little potato heads.”

Hill said that, with each project, she teaches students another element of art such as shape, texture and color. Students learn improvisation exercises in the drama course and are taught to increase their confidence through performance, Hill explained. The Student Arts League culminates in a drama performance and art show at Newbridge Elementary School.