Celebration of the Arts set for March 8

Bow Editor — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:47:00 GMT

The Hopkinton School District will host its sixth annual “Celebration of the Arts” on Thursday, March 8, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., at Hopkinton Middle/High School, 297 Park Ave. (Route 103), Contoocook.

This outpouring of community creativity takes over the whole school and showcases the imaginative efforts of students and faculty in drama, music, poetry, digital media, visual arts and more.

Admission is free, and refreshments, along with the arts, will be served. Parents are asked to accompany children younger than 12 to minimize noise and disruption.

The students and faculty of the Hopkinton School District have once again assembled the annual Celebration of the Arts to show their creativity to Central New Hampshire. Once again, music is a mainstay and opens the evening with the middle/high school’s tropical steel band – appropriately named Hopkinton Steel. Emerging student rock bands such as Loaded, Ianick and Liquid Mandy will perform, as well as numerous solo vocal and instrumental performances. The Maple Street School chorus and band round out the musical offerings.

There will be improv from the drama club and all manner of literary representation in the poetry coffeehouse. The digital future is front and center with Hopkinton’s national FIRST robot entry, which will be on display throughout the evening. Woodworking and lathe turning will have its own stage, as will the digital media arts, which include a screening of “Aceboy,” an original film by Hopkinton grad Kyle Sedgley.

There will also be some deft dance sequences, some adept juggling and something called the “Bag People,” about whom not much is known other than that they will be wandering everywhere and do not pose an immediate danger to the public.

The Hopkinton School District has long been committed to the arts as an integral component of all its schools and programs.

As Chris Kelley, Hopkinton Middle/High School’s assistant principal, has noted, “We believe the arts are a launching pad for lifelong learning, exploration and discovery, enriching and supporting our traditional academic offerings.”

For more information, contact David R. White at 224-5957 or drwprimemover@yahoo.com; or Chris Kelley at 746-4167 or ckelley@hopkintonschools.org.

2007 Rotary calendar features students’ art

Bow Editor — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 21:47:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Once a month in 2007, Hopkinton and Contoocook residents can turn to the featured Artist of the Month in the Rotary’s new calendar.

The 2007 calendar featuring the artwork of 60 Hopkinton students in grades 1 through 12, was first offered to residents who turned out to vote on Nov. 7.

One of the students came up to Rotarian Bruce Salsbury on Election Day and showed him his picture in the calendar.

“You could see the pride and the joy in his face, just, ‘Wow my picture is really there.’ That made it all worth it, all the effort. It was great,” Salsbury said.
The Rotary has been offering the calendars for several years, and sales are used to support the community.

“It started as a historic calendar and then we had one year with current pictures, then the next year, local artists submitted their art work,” he said. “I like to do something a little different every year. So through the art teachers, my vision was to get art work submitted by kids, judge it and put them in the calendar, and that’s what we did.”

While all submissions were included in the calendar, an independent jury decided which pictures would take up the 13 individual month pages.

“I managed, one way or another, to get all the artwork submitted into the calendar, including a montage in the back, which is very colorful,” said Salsbury.

The pictures in the calendar were submitted by art teachers Sue Batchelder, Jim Kociuba and Jane List.

About half of the calendars sold on Election Day.

“It’s been very successful this year,” he said. “If people don’t get their calendars in the next couple of weeks, then we’ll probably just run out.”

The calendars are currently available for purchase at the town clerk’s office, The Contoocook Needlework Gallery, The Covered Bridge Frame Shop and Gallery, The Cracker Barrel, The New Hampshire Antiquarian Society and Bellas. Calendars may also be purchased from local Rotarians.

The cost of production, said Salsbury, was primarily covered by 50 to 60 local businesses that advertise in the calendar.

“I like to give small businesses the opportunity to show they support community and Rotary events,” he said. “The small (ads) are only $25 and the ones that are on the calendar pages are $150, that’s’ pretty reasonable when you consider the cost of advertising in local newspapers and magazines.”

Proceeds from the calendars, which sell for $10 each, will benefit the Rotary Club’s senior scholarship program and other community- and school-related projects.

Last year, the Rotary donated roughly $4,000 from calendar sales to the community and another $17,500 from its annual golf tournament for scholarships to graduating seniors.

Hopkinton News : arts

Celebration of the Arts set for March 8

2007 Rotary calendar features students’ art