By Carrie James
"It's a kindergarten through 12th-grade exhibit," said Dr. Richard Schreiner, district art director. "This is the first time we had a theme for the art show. We asked all the kids to interpret the events of Sept. 11 in their art."
Many of the more than 50 artworks referred to the World Trade Center towers or the firefighters and police officers that helped. Others depicted photos artistically displayed to pay tribute to those who fell victim in the tragedy.
The reason district art instructors chose to make this year a theme, Schreiner said, was that already many kids were creating art based on their emotions from Sept. 11. Also, he thought giving students the opportunity to express themselves about Sept. 11 would help them cope with it.
"It gives the kids a chance to express themselves and their feelings," he said. "Also, when we thought of heroes, we thought of people in our community. We have police and firefighters here that are a part of our community. This was a chance to pay tribute to them."
Some of the highlights of the art show, which took place Sept. 7 at East Meadow High School, included several group projects by students throughout the district. One such collaboration was by the students at Clarke High School. They created a large quilt with pockets sewn into it. They were pockets of peace, where passersby could place messages of hope in the various pockets designated for love, peace, unity, etc.
"It is to honor those who participated in the events in Sept. 11," said Shari Zimmerman, art teacher at Clarke High School, referring to the firefighters, police and volunteers. "We're hoping these pockets are filled up with messages."
East Meadow High School senior Gloria Gill crafted another moving piece. She painted a large image depicting a firefighter with clouds around him. Her teacher Schreiner called the image powerful.
She spent more than a week on the painting, called "Liberty's Desperation," which stands three-foot by five-foot.
"I wanted that fireman to be anyone, to represent those who gave their lives and all the heroism that took place," Gill said. "I tried to capture the pain and the sadness of the day."
One hard part in creating the work, she said, was looking through all the images from that day, trying to capture feelings of terror and sadness. She plans to donate the painting to a fire station.
Many elementary students also capturedfeelings of the day through their depiction of firefighters and the World Trade Center.
"I didn't realize the emotional impact that these events had on these kids," Schreiner said. "Many of the parents want to see this as a healing process for the kids also. This was a release for students to contribute in some way."
