Ansonia Middle School students have been busy painting lighthearted images depicting springtime on tables and benches that will be installed in the school’s courtyard.
Art teacher Ashley Preneta said the project gives her students a sense of ownership. It will include a piece of artwork from all seventh- and eighth-graders.
“Every student did some artwork for this, so every kid has a little piece of the tables and benches,” she said.
Valley Arts Council President Rich DiCarlo and Vice President Steve DiRienzo expressed their encouragement by lending their talent to the project.
Preneta, DiCarlo, and DiRienzo transposed the student designs onto picnic tables, stools, and benches, and helped with the painting.
The project is funded by a $1,000 grant from the Orange-based Jamie A. Hulley Foundation.
Hulley was an artist and student at Wesleyan University when she died in 2002 just before her 22nd birthday.
Her parents established the foundation to fund arts for children and to continue their daughter’s legacy.
Preneta said a portion of the grant is going to the Valley Arts Council for its assistance in the artwork. The rest of the funds were used for supplies, and to purchase the tables and benches.
Judy Primavera, Jamie Hulley’s mother, visited Ansonia Middle School recently and said she was pleased with the progress of the students’ work.
“This is exactly what I’m looking for (in a project),” she said. “The kids generated the images and they’re going to paint them. It’s a permanent record of what they did.”
Primavera said in the future other seventh- and eighth-graders will see the artwork and “it will inspire them to think they can do it too.”
She said her daughter enjoyed painting pieces of furniture.
“It’s something permanent,” Primavera said.
Students said they had fun with the project.
”It’s artistic and it’s putting out nice vibes for the school,” seventh-grader Jere-Mae Pintacasi said.
Faiza Chowdhury, another seventh-grader, said the artwork “shows happiness. Some people don’t like to draw, but this (artwork) shows how you enjoy spring.”
Classmate Ashanti Sanders said the flower design she was painting on one of the tables was going to look pretty.
“It will be nice for the springtime and people can use the benches,” she said.
DiCarlo said, “The Valley Arts Council works with a lot of children in the Valley region, and some of the kids working on this project also take art classes with me.”
