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Artists on hand to help FishHawk Creek Elementary celebrate

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By CHERYL KUCK

Tribune correspondent

Published: April 29, 2009

LITHIA - "The arts are alive and well at FishHawk Creek Elementary School," says Celebrate the Arts event coordinator Alison Fiol.

The school's second annual PTA cultural arts event was March 31.

Last year, I experienced the event as an arts-loving newspaper columnist. I was happy to see the school and PTA exposing children and their families to the arts, so I became a volunteer and participant this year.

Fiol and her PTA assistants, Jill Kinney and Susan Tumlin, created a program to stimulate the senses and pique the interest of parents.

The program allows children to participate in hands-on arts workshops, take virtual tours of great museums and get up-close-and-personal with artists and musicians.

Dawn Johnson, Tampa Museum of Art's curator of education, showed kids how to make an accordion book and talked about the new museum set to open this fall.

Representatives from the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York presented virtual tours, while St. Petersburg's Museum of Fine Arts representatives Anna Alexander and Steve Hack demonstrated relief printmaking.

A steel drum demonstration by Johnny Lowery and a junkyard band workshop with Victor Larsen got the children's musical creative juices flowing. They beat on drums and banged on instruments created from almost any household object. They also learned about classical guitar music from Jesse Guajardo, one of FishHawk Elementary's music teachers.

The kids also listened to piano selections by FishHawk Creek music teacher Mary Baldwin, who also presented the event's grand finale, a bagpipe performance.

The popular Tampa Bits 'N Pieces Puppet Theater gave a performance with the school's art group, the Purple Palette Club, under the direction of art teacher Pat Bunk. Bunk also showed her own artwork with fellow art teacher Abagail Rothrock.

Artists Roberta Gomolak and Bryant Martinez offered workshops. Artists Andrea Dwight, Sue Allen, Roxanne Tobaison, Meletha Everett, Brigitte Mailahn, Doreen Donovan and Marsha Nelson also took part in the event.

Each artist submitted questions and answers for a scavenger hunt. They included, "Do tigers live in Africa?" "What is the world's largest egg?" and "What is an ocean home-made of coral for fish called?"

While finding the answers to these and other questions, children and parents had a great time interacting with the artists.

The prize for answering all the questions posed by every artist was the chance to talk about the experience on the in-school television program.

Believe me, these kids were hard to stump.

"We are looking forward to a third annual celebration next year," said FishHawk Creek Principal Pamela Bush.

"We have really embraced this special project of our PTA. This year, we had over 350 children actively involved with the cultural night, and the school is grateful we have such an active PTA concerned with motivating students through this outstanding event.

"Our goal is to help broaden students' horizons and understanding of music, performance and visual arts," she said. "We want them to feel the connection between the arts and creative thought in the real world. We also do a lot of interactive special events, including nights dedicated to family literacy and reading, writing and math and science.

"Inspiring students is our ultimate aim, and we are glad we have a community that is so willing to actively assist in accomplishing those goals through their participation."

Cheryl Kuck is a media member of the Greater Brandon Arts Council. She can be contacted at wkuck@tampa bay.rr.com.

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