KCH enjoys temporary makeover during annual art show

The culmination of nine months of mess erupted on the walls of K.C. Heffernan Elementary School over the past nine days.

Since September, the 500 students (Grades K -3) in art teacher Fran Hagan’s classes have been getting their hands dirty – with paint, clay, chalk and glue. And all year long, Mrs. Hagan followed behind them and quietly squirreled away the fruits of those labors.

Then, in the opening days of May, she wallpapered the corridors of KCH with all 2,000-plus pieces of art and invited the entire school community to stroll, browse and admire, during the annual KCH Art Show, which began May 13 and wraps up today.

“Having an art show this way enables us to see all of the different projects that the children do throughout the year,” Mrs. Hagan explained in a letter home to parents. “I think their work is just beautiful and they have so much to be proud of.”
Working in pastels, paint (watercolors, tempera, etc.), chalk, collage, clay, fabric and cut-and-pasted paper, the students depict animals (e.g. the second-grade dinosaur T-shirt project and the third-grade papier-mâché pig project), family members, themselves (in self-portraits), nature, even lessons gleaned from the classroom.

Mrs. Hagan also encouraged students to emulate the styles of real artists, such as impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh, surrealist Joan Miro, pop artist Jim Dine, American artist Laurel Burch (perhaps best known for her vibrantly colored, whimsical cats), among others. Children also created works in the spirit of children’s book illustrators Eric Carle (“The Very Hungry Caterpillar”) and Nancy Carlson (“Picture Puffins”). 

“They work very hard in art class,” Mrs. Hagan said. “I’m forever pushing them to do their best and we try not to waste a minute of our time in art class.”