Art mentorships broaden student horizons

ONEIDA » Willard Prior students are enjoying some extra time to make art outside of their normal school hours. pARTners is a combination of the National ArtHonor Society students from Oneida High School led by OHS art teacher Heather Cigeroglu andWillard Prior Elementary students and their art teacher, Tracie McLain.

The two groups form mentorships and relationships as they create art that is personal and also civicminded.

pARTners started out at North Broad Elementary at the beginning of the 2017 school year. One of the major accomplishments was a muralmade of plastic bottle caps that were collected by students. The mural will be unveiled for the first time at theOneidaDistrictArt show held at OSMS onMarch 20; it will then be housed in a permanent location at the elementary school.

Participants said that this environmental initiative got them thinking about the small things they can do to make a dif- ference. When you throw away one plastic bottle cap, it’s small and youmight not think that this will cause any damage to our environment. But once the students began to collect the caps, they quickly filled three large totes. It makes you realize the amount of waste that quickly builds up fromsomething as small as a bottle cap. By creating art with theminstead of throwing themaway, it shows the students that they canmake a difference.

The Willard Prior pARTners are starting their sessions out with an art ini- tiative they hope will eventually find its way out into the public domain. They are creating “kindness coins” out of clay and beads that will be given out randomly to families attending the annual Oneida District Art show. At the show, families will also have the opportu- nity to create some kindness coins, which the pARTners group will take back to school to glaze and bead. These coins will then be passed out in the community as a token of kindness to either be kept or passed on. A tag will be attached to the coin that will also contain the Facebook page for the Oneida City District Art page, where people are encouraged to share their story of how they found their coin. It’s a way to show students that they canmake a make an impact on someone by giving a small gesture of kindness.

PHOTO COURTESY ONEIDA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT Willard Prior students participating in the new pARTners program create “kindness coins.”