Herington High School Art Club to Host Ellis Island Traveling Exhibit
by Cathy Crouch
February 19, 2010
The Herington High School Art Club is sponsoring a Teacher’s Discovery Traveling Exhibit featuring the words and pictures of the millions who made their way to America through the “Golden Door” at Ellis Island. The students and staff will enjoy the giant reproductions during the week of Monday, March 8 through Thursday, March 11. The exhibit celebrates American history and immigration.
The Art Club selected this project to aid in an all school collaboration. Several of the high school teachers were interested in combining their interests and knowledge to create project based lessons and to work with their colleagues. The collaboration is a good way to show students that there is much crossover between their various subjects and to model good working relationships for the students. Teachers voted on a number of exhibits that they thought would interest the students. Some of the exhibits include artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Frederick Remington. Other exhibits were not directly art related, such as the Civil War, Global Warming, and Medicines of the Rainforest. The Ellis Island exhibit was the most popular choice.
Teachers will be offering a number of projects for students to participate in. Most projects will be kicked off after viewing the exhibit. Some of the projects that students will work on are as follows:
Mrs. Kim Coover - Research on disease and vaccinations
Mrs. Janet Gonzolas - Power Point presentations on disease and vaccinations.
Mrs. Darlene Griffiths and Mr. James Carnes - Ellis Island statistics
Mrs. Debra Geissert - Research famous Ellis Island immigrants and create presentations based on them.
Mrs. DeAn Knopp - The famous Ellis Island immigrant presentations will be taped and broadcast and research on how the Ellis Island experience affected immigrants.
Mr. Kelly Carland - Genealogy
Mrs. Julie Albrecht - Web sites concerning the cultural influences stemming from the Ellis Island period.
Mrs. Catherine Crouch - Graphic novels and fictional journals based the immigration experience, game design based on Ellis Island, lectures and films based on visual artists who immigrated from Nazi Germany to the United States for the sake of freedom of expression.
The public is invited to the exhibit. It will be open during Parent Teacher Conferences, Tuesday, March 9 and Thursday, March 11, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. each evening. HCC Channel 4 is planning to broadcast a special on Ellis Island early in the school day, Monday, March 8 and then later in the evening. We will have more details on the broadcast at a later date. If you have questions about the exhibit, please contact Catherine Crouch, 785-258-2261 ext. 450.
