Two Diocesan Schools win LFUCG EcoArt grants

Above: Mayor Jim Newberry announces the grant winners of the Lexington-Fayette County Urban Government's 2010 EcoArt Program

The LFUCG's EcoArt Program is designed to encourage and support
environmental art projects that creatively educate local citizens on
environmental issues and encourage citizens to take their own steps to help
Lexington become a sustainable community. The grants will help local artists,
schools and non-profit agencies in Fayette County to creat works in the fields
of visual and performing art to engage the entire community in affecting the
environment in many positive ways.

Two schools from the Diocese of Lexington received grants:

Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary received $1,000 to create a cafeteria mural
depicting nature and wildlife to promote and educate ways to keep the
environment clean and healthy.

Sts. Peter & Paul received $4,000 for the project LexTree. The project
will:

• educate the public on identification and conservation of historic trees in downtown Lexington by publishing a LexTree Walking Brochure to be released next Arbor Day
• present a drama production in Gratz Park, also on Arbor Day
• showcase an interactive exhibit of students' tree-inspired mixed-media and photography at a local art gallery

Congratulations to these two schools!!

Holiday Arts & More at SPPS

Above: Scene from Sts Peter & Paul School's "The Nutcracker" production

Nanci Barnhart, Arts Coordinator at Sts. Peter & Paul School in Lexington sends this update:

There is much to sing about at Sts. Peter and Paul School this month! We were
honored as our students were invited to display their artwork at the last
Gallery Hop on November 20th. Selected works from our 4th-8th graders graced
the walls of Christ Church Cathedral. These pieces were part of the Art at
the Cathedral exhibition entitled “For the Delight of Children”.

Art teacher, Beth Ettensohn, supervised a block printing demonstration by our
8th graders at the reception during the Gallery Hop, which was attended by
over 345 visitors! The exhibit will continue until January 10.

The first-ever baton team, the SPPS “Twirling Eagles”, made their city debut in
Lexington’s Christmas Parade. They are coached by UK majorettes Caitlin
Midkiff and Erica Kosilesky, and began as part of the fall 3D Arts Academy.

December is a month filled with many performance opportunities for our students.
Our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students presented their version of “The Nutcracker”
on December 9th. Directed by PE teacher Amy Schenck, the ballet featured Mckenna
Sanders as Clara, Kristian Duncan as the Nutcracker, and Maya Mintu as the Sugar
Plum Fairy.

The SPPS Band and Chorus concert is scheduled for Wednesday, December 16. Our
4th and 5th grade chorus, 6th and 7th grade combined choruses, and band members
in grades 5-8 will perform in the Lexington Catholic High School auditorium at
7:00 PM.

The littlest “angels” at SPPS have planned a breakfast concert for 8:15 AM on
December 16th. Parents and grandparents will be treated to Bible passages,
songs, and dances performed by our Pre-School children.

All the Pretty Pumpkins at CTK

Above: Students at Christ the King School, Lexington, show off their Great Pumpkins

The Eighth Grade art students at Christ the King painted pumpkins for Halloween that were then raffled to earn money for their upcoming class trip to Washington DC.

Just check out these creative entries!

Artful Commemoration

Above: Students at Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary stand in front of their special "Day of the Dead" altar that focused on - Walt Disney!

Cornelia Nash, art teacher at MQHR in Lexington, shared some news and photos about a special project:

Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary combined Spanish, Art and our gifted program to celebrate "Dia de los Muertos," the Day of the Dead, on November 2. In Spanish-speaking cultures, this holiday is a special way to focus on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. As part of the commemoration, families and friends will build a special shrine or altar that showcases photos, mementos, and even favorite foods of their beloved departed.

We celebrated the life of Walt Disney by preparing a Day of the Dead altar about him. (All our students know about "Disney," but they're too young to have seen the old "Wonderful World of Disney" TV shows that actually featured Walt Disney talking about his work) The third graders did the research on Walt Disney's life and found out what inspired him to create so many characters and stories and, of course, Disney World!

Our gifted program made the sugar skulls, our middle school made the paper cuts and the third graders also made the maracas, which are traditional symbols used to decorate altars on the Day of the Dead.

It was a great celebration and the learning was so much fun.

The paper cut away designs were strung along the border of the altar and also across the second floor walkway.

Students drew posters (above) with scenes from Disney movies.

Front view of the altar to remember Walt Disney



Some mementos and favorite foods (including saltine crackers!)

The students created the colorful maracas and the sugar skulls.

Art to Benefit Action

Above: Two of the dramatic masks that will be on sale at the upcoming "From the Streets to a Home" dinner/auction event at Lexington Catholic High School. A LCHS Art Club student made the mask on the left, while a participant in the "From the Streets.." program created the mask on the right.

From the Lexington Catholic Website:

On Wednesday Nov. 18th at 6:00 PM in the LCHS Cafeteria, LCHS Art Club students and participants of “From the Streets to a Home” will present their handmade ceramic masks and sell them via silent auction. Joe Bologna’s and the LCHS Culinary Club will cater the event with a spaghetti dinner and dessert. Dinner will cost five dollars.

All proceeds will go to “From the Streets to a Home," a program sponsored by the Catholic Action Center that provides apartments for homeless people ready to improve their lives.

The event is the culmination of the LCHS Art Club and Culinary Club’s service project started earlier in October. For five weeks, Art Club students brought food prepared by the LCHS Culinary Club to Cardinal Crossing Apartments on Village Drive where people who were previously homeless meet every Monday. Together, Art Club students and “From the Streets to a Home” participants, shared a meal, discussed their problems, and developed an understanding of their shared humanity by making ceramics masks together.

The masks made during this service project express the passion, creativity, and hope held by all the people who made them. These masks will be on displayed on Nov. 18th at Lexington Catholic High School, and will be available for purchase through silent auction.

For more information, please contact LCHS Art Teacher, Stephen Dorsett.

World Equestrian Games Looking for Talent

Would your school band and/or chorus like to perform at the World Equestrian Games next year?

Here is the press release from the Commonwealth News Service with information about performance venues at the Kentucky Experience pavilion:

Kentucky Experience Seeks Performing Artists for World Equestrian Games
URL : http://kentucky.gov/Newsroom/kyarts/KyExperience_CalltoArtists.htm

Summary : The deadline is approaching for Kentucky performing artists to submit an application to perform at The Kentucky Experience pavilion, which will be part of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Professional artists and community and school groups in all performing arts genres may submit applications until December 15, 2009.

OLM Offers Some Artful Cooking

Above: Our Lady of the Mountains School in Paintsville is housed in the beautiful Mayo Mansion.

Here is an item from the 11/4/09 Lexington Herald Leader about OLM's new cookbook:

A cookbook produced by Our Lady of the Mountains School in Paintsville is much more than recipes.

“It tells the story of the beautiful building our school is housed in, one of the most historic buildings in Eastern Kentucky — The Mayo ­Mansion,” Sue Miller said. Proceeds from the sales will be used to help students with tuition. “Because more than 50 percent of our students receive significant amounts of tuition assistance, the school must generate over $80,000 each year through fund-raising efforts,” Miller said.

The school is housed in the three-story neoclassical home built by coal baron John C.C. Mayo in the early 1900s. In 1945, the building was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington, and it has been a school since then. It is now part of the Lexington diocese.

The cookbook has photos of past and current students, and student artwork, among the recipes from parents, teachers and friends of the school.

The cookbook is $20; ­shipping is $5 regardless of the ­number purchased. Call (606) 789-3661 or e-mail jeddison123@yahoo.com.

St. Leo Art Club Illustrates the Year of the Priest

Above: Members of St. Leo's Art Club present their "The Year of the Priest" banner in its full glory.

Art teacher Rosie Fedorchuk sends in this update from St. Leo School, Versailles:

St. Leo Art CLub made this banner celebrating "The Year of the Priest". All the children in the parish signed it. It will hang all year to remind us all how important priests are in the lives of all of God's people.

The Art Club students worked on the banner as one happy group.

The main panel sets the theme.

Panels include priests in action, such as administering the Sacrament of the Anointing the Sick...

and celebrating the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Thanks to the students for sharing their work!

SPPS Band Concert was Frightfully Fun

Above: Dorothy, with Toto under control in the basket at her feet, and the Wicked Witch put aside their differences to find harmony in music at Saints Peter and Paul School's Halloween Concert, Oct. 26, 2009, at Lexington Catholic High School's theater.

The SPPS Band was obviously in full Halloween spirit for this year's fall concert, featuring a few spooky tunes, some haunting melodies, and a little Rock-tober music.

Quite a treat for everyone!

LFUCG grant for EcoART

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government's Department of Environmental Quality and LexArts are launching EcoART, a program that lets not-for-profit groups, schools, and individual artists apply for up to $5,000 in grants to fund projects that raise public awareness of environmental issues. The projects can be any arts form, performance or visual.

Participating schools and groups must be based in Fayette County, and although individual artists from outside Lexington may apply, their projects must take place in the county.

Proposals are due Nov. 15. The link to the informational brochure and submission form is

http://www.lexarts.org/participate/programs-services/ecoart/

For more information, contact Nathan Zamarron at 859-255-2951 or nzamarron@lexarts.org.

LCHS Band in Full Swing

Above: The LCHS Concert Band lets loose on "The Thunderer" at their Fall Concert, Oct. 11.

The Lexington Catholic Jazz Band, Percussion Ensemble and Concert Bands, under the direction of Allison Weitkmap, Craig Porter and Brad Kerns (with assistance from student teacher Shannon Younger) revved up a busy semester with their recent fall concert.

Lots more band music and activities are on the way:

Oct 28 - the band kicks off their fall fundraiser (going to NYC next semester, so they need a little extra cash)

Oct 30 - the band honors senior members at the LCHS Football Game

Nov. 5 - all are invited to chat with friendly, enthusiastic band members helping out at the LCHS Open House

Nov 17 - All State auditions begin (good luck and watch that beat!)

Nov. 19 -21 - band members will participate in the Asbury College Honor Band

Dec. 7 - time for carols and the amazing combined sound of the LCHS Band and Choir's Christmas Concert

Check the calendar on the Lexington Catholic High School web site often for the complete scoop on event times and contact information.

CCHD announces Multi-Media Arts Contest

At left - 2009 CCHD Multi-Media Arts Contest entry created by Molly D (St. Leo School)

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) invites students in grades 7 through 12 to participate in its annual multi-media youth arts program to provide schools and parishes an opportunity to engage the entire community in learning about: (1) how low income persons themselves can effectively lead efforts to address the causes of poverty in their communities, and (2) how all Catholics are called to act in support of such efforts as a result of their faith and the values of Catholic social teaching. This year's theme is Empowering Communities, Uprooting Poverty.

Students are encouraged to use the media of their choice to illustrate the contest theme, including
Audio-visual (i.e. music, video, website, PowerPoint, combination of audio & visual), Literature (i.e. poetry, prose, drama, short story, essay), and Visual arts (i.e. painting, photography, drawing).

Entries are first judged at the diocesan level; several entries will be selected for judging at the national level. The deadline for submitting entries to the diocese is March 10, 2010. Entries should be sent or delivered to the Catholic Center, 1310 West Main St., Lexington KY 40508.

Complete information about contest submission (sizes, performance length, word counts, entry form, etc.) as well as resources for exploring Catholic social teaching are on the CCHD website at http://www.usccb.org/cchd/contestmaterials.shtml

Last year we had a number of very impressive entries, and some of the art work is on display at the Catholic Center!

At right - 2009 CCHD Contest entry by Anna F (Lexington Catholic HS)

Another 3D Year at SPPS

Above: Students enjoyed playing steel drums at last spring's 3D Academy at SPPS

Here's an update about the arts program at Sts. Peter and Paul School in Lexington from Nanci Barnhart, Fine Arts Coordinator:

Our school year has started off with many arts events here at Sts. Peter and Paul. The 3D Academy began September 22, and we have nine class offerings this semester: steel drums, African drums, puppetry, contemporary dance, hip hop and jazz dance, storytelling through dance, guitar, baton twirling, and a “stomp”-type class. You can look for our twirling class in Lexington’s Christmas parade on November 27. Our 3D showcase will be held on November 5 at 6 PM, in conjunction with our library’s book fair. We would love for you to join us for this special event!

Beth Ettensohn, our Art teacher, is excited to be working with our middle school students this year, as well as the elementary students. All SPPS students have made self-portraits that will be made into ceramic tiles. When our new building is completed, the tiles of every student at SPPS will be formed into a cross.

Lindsey Hathaway, our Music teacher, is excited about having middle school chorus with 6th and 7th grade. They will make their debut at our Christmas concert on Dec. 16 at Lexington Catholic. Upcoming musical events include CKMEA regional chorus on Nov. 7, and auditions for All-state.

All of our elementary children were treated to a performance by the UK Opera Theater on Sept. 29. “A Shirt-Tailed Boy Named Abe” gave us insight into the life of Abraham Lincoln as a young boy. You can see a clip of the program on our web site, http://www.sts.peterandpaulschool.org/.

Stephanie Wier, our Drama instructor, has been busily writing an original drama, “Christmas through the Ages”. Our middle school students are in a great state of excitement about this opportunity to show off their acting skills. This musical has been cast, and will be presented in the form of a dinner theater on Dec. 4 & 5. Look for details about time and price to be posted on our web.

A Halloween concert will feature the talents of SPPS band students in grades 5-8. The program will be on Monday, October 26, 7 PM, at Lexington Catholic. Their director is Allison Weitkamp.

New after-school classes for our 4 year olds and kindergarten students will begin on October 19. “Music and Moves” will be taught on Monday afternoons by Mary Joy Nelson and Jenny Fitzpatrick.

Busy Semester for Music at LCHS

Above: Lexington Catholic HS 2009 Inductees into the Tri M Music Honor Society

Music is in the air at Lexington Catholic HS as the Band and Choir students rev up their instruments. The Band's fall concert was held on October 11, and the Choir Fall Concert is later this month on October 28 (note: this has been corrected from the previously reported date!) at 7 PM. The Band and Choir will join forces on December 7 for their annual Christmas Concert.

TIP grants from KY

Oops - the deadline for this is Oct. 15, but I still thought I'd pass this along:

The Kentucky Arts Council is accepting applications until October 15, 2009 for Teacher Initiated Program grants. These grants support schools bringing professional artists from a wide range of arts disciplines into the classroom to carry out a one- to four-week residency. Through this program, artists share their art form and provide hands-on arts experiences for students, and collaborate with teachers on innovative ways to integrate the arts across the curriculum. In addition, the artists can offer professional development opportunities for the teachers.

Schools may choose artists for residencies from the Kentucky Arts Council's "Arts Education Roster.” Artists are selected for this roster based on artistic excellence and their ability to work in a teaching and learning environment. The residencies can be funded for 1 to 4 weeks and must take place between January 1, 2010 and June 30, 2010 in this grant cycle.

For more information about the Teacher Initiated Program, contact Arts Education
Director Carrie Nath at (502) 564-3757 ext. 486, toll free 888-833-2787 or carrie.nath@ky.gov. To access guidelines, instructions and an application, go to http://artscouncil.ky.gov/guide/prog6/tip_guid.htm

The Blog is back for 2009-10!

Hello all! The Arts Blog is back for the 2009-10 school year. Please send along your news, photos, etc. of your upcoming and recent arts events - we want to share all the good things going on in our Catholic schools throughout the Diocese of Lexington!

Thanks to all those who joined us for the brief fine arts meeting held prior to In Service Days activities on Oct. 2 at CTK. Since a number of teachers were participating in the liturgy and couldn't make it, we want to recap the meeting.

Our diocesan Catholic Schools Office still has grant money remaining from the National Catholic Educational Association to strengthen our fine arts programs and to integrate arts more fully into other subject areas. Our pilot program to form an Arts Consortium (AC) that would oversee that process did accomplish some good things, but it became clear that to operate at the level envisioned, the AC would need a "person in charge" - whether a volunteer chairman (with lots of time!) or paid staff person - to call and chair meetings, delegate tasks, coordinate resources, etc.

So the core committee is proposing a different approach this year. The goals are 1) to provide some guidelines for fine arts curricula within our schools and 2) to provide professional development to help integrate arts into more subject areas.

Facilitator Beth Ettensohn will head up the Arts Curriculum Development Team, which will meet over 7 days in June 2010 to write a visual and performing arts framework. The team will consist of subgroups for the following disciplines: visual arts, music, drama, and dance. The dates for the work sessions are June 7 -11 and June 14-15, 2010, meeting from 10 AM to 4 PM. A stipend of $840 will be granted upon completion of all these sessions. Beth is looking for at least two members for each discipline and handed out applications at the meetings. The application will be available on the Catholic Schools Office website shortly, or you can call Jill Heink at 859-253-1993 x 252 for more information and to receive an application via e-mail.

How to best provide professional development opporunities is still under consideration. Superintendent Bill Farnau discussed the possibility of having Lexington Catholic HS and Sts. Peter & Paul School coordinate professional development activities that will be open to the teachers in all of our schools. LCHS and SPPS are regional, inter-parish schools, and SPPS will soon open its new facility that was designed with a special emphasis on arts education. Attendees were encouraged to write down their suggestions for professional devleopment activities (for example, bringing in a particular consultant or artist, attending a particular regional or statewide conference, etc.).

Thanks again to everyone for all your suggestions and discussions. Watch this space for updates and reports!

SPPS School announces Summer Arts Camp

Nanci Barnhart, Fine Arts Coordinator at Sts. Peter and Paul School in Lexington, sent this preview of their upcoming Summer Arts Camp. Looks like fun! (Above, a student creates jewelry at the SPPS 3 D Arts Academy during the school year).

St. Peter and Paul School will offer its first Summer Camp featuring classes in the Arts. The classes will begin the week of June 1 and continue until August 7. Students can register for the full day camp or the Arts Academy only. Offerings include:

June 1-5 Create a Play with Lexington Children’s Theater
June 8-12 Jump Rope for Fun with Mrs. Amy Schenck
June 15-19 Multi-Cultural Dance with the Lexington Ballet
June 22-26 Explore More Art with the Explorium
June 29-July 3 Going Native with Art teacher Beth Ettensohn
July 6-10 Puppet Time with Mrs. Amy Smith, Media Specialist
July 13-17 The Game of Chess with Sarah and Jeff Beach
July 20-24 World Percussion Camp with Central Music Academy
July 27-31 The Art of Cooking with Mrs. Annette Justice
August 3-7 Sing Out Strong with Mrs. Alysha O’Brien

The camp is open to anyone in grades 1-5. More details about the camp can be found on the school website, http://www.stspeterandpaulschool.org/.

Good Shepherd Art Class in Herald Leader

Above: Ida Palmer-Ball and students at Good Shepherd School in Frankfort explore with watercolors


The Lexington Herald Leader featured Good Shepherd's first grade class on the front page of the 4/15/09 Communities section.


Teacher Ida Palmer-Ball incorporates the Waldorf method into her classroom. As explained in the article, "The Waldorf method is based on the idea that learning is interdisciplinary, and the incorporation of the arts - including visual and performing arts - help students learn better."







The link to the story is at http://www.kentucky.com/176/story/761703.html




Above: students line up for recess in front of recent paintings whose theme was sea creatures.

Below right: Palmer-Ball integrates stories with her lessons. One dealt with a man in Afghanistan.

3rd Annual LCHS Fine Art Exhibit at Carnegie Center

(Above, visitors admire the LCHS art work displayed at the Carnegie Center during the 2008 Gallery Hop)

Stephen Dorsett, Art Teacher at Lexington Catholic High School, sends this invitation

3rd Annual Lexington Catholic Fine Art Exhibit
Carnegie Center for Learning and Literacy
Friday, April 17th, 5-8pm
Downtown Gallery Hop

Over 30 pieces of artwork from our Fine Arts students will be on
display during the Spring Gallery Hop Downtown. Please join us in
celebrating the accomplishments of our art students.

The Lexington Downtown Gallery Hop is always a large event, with many professional
artists displaying work throughout Lexington's finest galleries. This is a great honor that our students have received.

Last spring, our students set a Gallery Hop attendance for the Carnegie Center with over 450 visitors in the three hour span. We want to break that record this spring!!!

LCHS Choir presents "Songs of Creation"

Adam Beeken, Choir Director at Lexington Catholic High School, sends along this invitation:

Spring Choir Concert
Songs of Creation
Thursday 3/19 7:00pm LCHS Theater

+Join us for our choir concert featuring LCHS choirs and soloists fresh back from a trip to Chicago .
+There will be special performance by MidKnight M’Ladyes and After Hours in the lobby before the concert at 6:40pm.
+There will be a reception following the concert.

This is a concert you won't want to miss!!

St. Agatha in the News

St. Agatha Academy in Winchester is featured on the front page of today's Lexington Herald Leader's Communities section.

At left, Principal Christy Rickert watches two students work on a comic book project in the computer lab - sounds very artistic!

Read the full story at

http://www.kentucky.com/141/story/721881.html

Music All Around

Above: All the school choirs joined in song!

Adam Beeken, Choir Director at Lexington Catholic, sends this report about lots and lots of choir activities:

AREA CHOIR CONCERT - We had a wonderful afternoon on Sunday, March 1, with over 120 students from local schools and parishes combining together at Pax Christi Church in Lexington for the annual Area Choir performance. Special thanks to Pax Christi for hosting and the Blake family for sponsoring the concert. We raised over $1,100 for our Vocal Music Award. We are now accepting applications for our incoming freshman and graduating seniors at this time.













WOMEN’S CHOIR FESTIVAL- We had a great experience last week participating with and singing for choirs from Lafayette and Western Hills High Schools at the Women's Choir Festival at Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington We worked with director Terri Foster from the Louisville Youth Choir as well as heard a special performance from the UK Women’s Choir and Paws & Listen.

SOLO & ENSEMBLE- This year we had a large number of students to perform at Solo & Ensemble and all of them received the highest rating of I (distinguished). This is a testament to our wonderful voice teachers and talented students congrats to
Anne Ward Arbegust
Chelsea Allen
Paul Bork
Catherine Borland
Megan Carter-Stone
Cheyenne Davis
Emma Hanley
Jennifer Hicks

Kelsey VonderHaar
Katherine Wright

The LCHS Choirs will keep the music coming on their trip to Chicago next week, and then March 19 is the big Spring Choir Concert.

Good Shepherd Visits Glassworks

Above: A Good Shepherd student helps "blow a kiss" to help form a beautiful glass creation (see last photo below!)

Amy Greenwell, Technology Coordinator at Good Shepherd School in Frankfort, sends this report about a colorful field trip:

Our 7th grade Art class took a field trip to Glassworks in Louisville. While at Glassworks the students got to take a tour of the facility and "blow" a kiss.

Above - The starting materials.

Below - It takes a lot of effort to keep the air coming at a steady pace!

Below right - The amazing results!

SPPS Earns National Award!

Nanci Barnhart, Fine Arts Coordinator at Sts. Peter and Paul School in Lexington, sent in this great news:

We are proud to announce that Sts. Peter & Paul School has been selected as one of the 12 recipients of the 2009 Catholic Schools for Tomorrow award from Today's Catholic Teacher. Our award is specifically for innovative projects in total community involvement, the 3D Arts program that sponsored classes for not only SPPS students, but also children from surrounding urban schools.

The program, and our school, will be featured in the March issue of Today's Catholic Teacher, along with the eleven other schools in the nation who are also being recognized this year. This award will be presented at a banquet during the 2009 National Catholic Education Association convention in Anaheim, California.

This is a wonderful honor for us, and will certainly spread the news about all the great things happening at SPPS.

The spring 3D Arts academy is in full swing, with classes in beginning violin, Irish dancing, musical theater, drama, African drumming, guitar, and art being offered. (See blog entry from Oct. 21, 2008). Our 3D Arts showcase will be held here at SPPS on March 26 at 6 PM. Everyone is invited to attend.