By Broadus Schools Art Teacher Kate Ruland
On April 11, 2024 we took 20 high school and jr high art and enrichment students to Sheridan College for the art intensive program hosted by the college's art department faculty and students.
Our students arrived bright and early, and as our first order of business we toured 2 galleries and voted on people's choice for one of those shows. Following our gallery tours, we attended orientation and some of our students were able to speak to the music department professors about available scholarships and opportunities. Then we were broken into groups and started our workshops.
A 12 foot crocodile built from clay was made as a collaborative art project involving 100 art students at the Sheridan Art Intensive.
The first workshop was on drawing, movement and music. Our group of 20 created a collaborative piece from charcoal, markers and oil pastels. The piece is a very large and non-representational piece that will be displayed in the high school (as soon as we can figure out how to hang such a large piece). The students worked together to create and had a really good time doing it.
Then our group went off to screen printing. They helped print t-shirts which the students got to bring home.
Our next stop was lino block prints. Students were able to create their own images, carve them out with a gouge and then make prints from them. They found out that printmaking is easier said than done and were feeling pretty accomplished at the end of this workshop.
Our rotation was not complete until we went downstairs for ceramics and leatherwork.
In the ceramics studio the students worked on creating a huge 12 foot crocodile; yet another collaborative project that all the schools worked on (approximately 100 students worked together). In the large studio room next-door the students had 6 different leather projects to choose from; some of them really liked the leather and tried several of the projects, including earrings, leather bound journals, bracelets, keychains, bookmarks that they could stamp, carve or burn.
At 11 AM we attended a performance by the M.E.A.T. group (musical ensemble audio technology) , which is a degree program offered at the college. They performed several original pieces complete with audio and visual effects. This performance was probably unlike any musical performance our students have ever seen, and many of them really liked it and stayed after the performance to speak to the student performers and ask questions. We were provided with a nice lunch and students finished up any last minute touches on projects before we started collecting all of our art and loading the bus.
The high school students that attended were Gracey Bradley, Kaytlin Fairbank, James Augare, Thomas Oylear, Justin Hand, Shaylee Bilbrey, Kendal Stanley and Tabitha Escott. The jr high students were Karlee Emmons, Reece Emmons, Addison Harper, Mesa Fleming, Sammy Hart, Delaney Ruland, Addi Randall, Maddie Kramme, Colton Jones, Kade VerWolf, Lucas Capp, and Christian Oylear.
Sheridan College was happy to have us, we were the only group that brought jr high students, and we received many compliments on how enthusiastic and fun they were. We were also the only Montana school in attendance this year. I sincerely hope that we can make this trip happen again and include more students from across different subject areas because they really did have something that appealed to everyone and it was such a fun day. I'm so glad that our school board approved this trip for our students, it will be an experience that I'm sure they will remember for a long time to come.
Broadus students creatively make their mark on a collective work at the art intensive in Sheridan. (Art photos courtesy Kate Ruland)
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