Kings County Arts in Action

Arts education, which includes visual arts, music, drama, and media arts, is an important part of a well-rounded education. This newsletter serves to highlight the amazing work with the arts being done by school districts within our county.

The gallery below displays some of the many pieces students at Hanford West High School, which is part of Hanford Joint Union High School District, have created this year through assignments given by Mr. Case. A student piece from Hanford West has been chosen as the background for this newsletter.

The HESD band team was so excited to start off the 2021-2022 school year with in-person band! The staff have been working hard at all eleven of the schools to rebuild the band program after COVID moved them to virtual band last school year.

Jefferson Academy, John F. Kennedy Jr. High and Woodrow Wilson Jr. High, have published virtual Fall and Winter Concerts that are available to HESD students and parents to view. All nine elementary sites have published Winter Concerts as well featuring beginning band students from 5th and 6th grade. Fourth grade classroom music with Mr. Donabedian has also resumed in person.

Five students from John F. Kennedy Jr. High earned positions in the Tulare Kings County Music Educators Association Honor Band. They will perform at the TKMEA Honor Band Concert in Porterville on February 5th. Students include Gabby M. and Anna A. on flute, Estefani M. on trumpet and on percussion, Leah V. and Kaliyah C.

Two students at JCM recently entered the Unsung competition put on by BreakFree Education. This organization provides educational support to schools serving system impacted youth. Students were asked to explore issues surrounding youth justice. These students earned 2nd place in the competition, which included students from juvenile justice settings across the country. You can listen to their song below.

Students in Mrs. Martin's art class also created personal mantra pieces with a positive message to help them keep their minds and bodies focused on the moment during moments of adversity. Some of their pieces are in the gallery below.

Students in Ms. Bejarano's art classes completed a variety of pieces. In Art 1 students completed texture and pattern ink drawings, in Art 2 students completed achromatic pieces, in Art 3 students completed watercolor pieces showing complementary color schemes found in nature, and in Art 4 students completed an independent project in the medium of their choice. Their work can be seen below.

Last year when COVID restrictions were placed on many instruments, Liberty Middle School, which is part of Lemoore Union Elementary School District, took a unique approach to making sure students continued to have access to music and introduced a ukulele class. This class has grown in popularity this year even as COVID restrictions have eased. The program was recently highlighted by KSEE 24 in their Education Matters series. The video can be seen below.

LUESD also found a way for all music program groups to perform in an outdoor setting to meet performance restrictions, while contributing and giving back to the community. The Liberty choir performed at the Lemoore Holiday Stroll in downtown Lemoore, the marching band performed in the Lemoore Christmas parade, and the Jazz band performed at the Lemoore Community Dinner at their drive-through event. The elementary schools in LUESD also did virtual concert events for parents to be able to see online.

Students at Corcoran High School have been practicing perspective by drawing staircases and using charcoals to learn about value. Please see the work below submitted by art teacher Mr. Alvarez.

Ms. McCaslin's students at Pioneer Middle School, which is part of Pioneer Union Elementary School District, have been learning to studying balance and utilizing positive and negative space. They also completed a post-watercolor training and a thorough study of linear perspective, foreground, middle ground, and background rules.

Below is a link to several charcoal drawings created by the Drawing 1 and Drawing 2 students at Lemoore Middle College High School.

Students learned about perspective, value, different light sources and how to measure from life to create an accurate representation of what they were seeing in front of them. This was their Still Life Semester Final.

The Hanford West Chamber Singers had a wonderful holiday season spreading holiday cheer through music and song! Aside from their annual Winter Concert, they were so proud to be asked to perform for local organizations. The Chamber Singers performed on stage at Hanford Civic Auditorium for the annual Christmas Charity Festival sponsored by the Hanford Chamber of Commerce. It was an elegant night with over 300 people in attendance, raising monies for local non-profit organizations.

The Chamber Singers also did a Holiday Tour performing for various community organizations. They especially loved singing for the California Retired Teachers Association and for the Rotary Club at the Kings Arts Center.

Students at Hanford High School, which is part of Hanford Joint Union High School District, created ceramic projects for Mr. Brauckman's ceramics courses. Students in Ceramics 1 created masks and students in Ceramics 2 created coin banks. Please see their work below.

Call for student artwork!

The CCSESA Statewide Arts Initiative and San Francisco USD are partnering together to highlight student artwork in an art exhibit to be featured at the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) State Conference in San Francisco on March 30 – April 2, 2022.

Contact Jessica Mapes at jmapes@ccsea.org with questions or to submit work.

The VAPA committee has compiled a list of resources for arts educators.

The Kings County Office of Education VAPA website has resources and information about the arts in Kings County.

Kings County Office of Education will release our next arts update in March 2022. Submissions may be sent to Liz Norris. Districts and sites are responsible for verifying that photos may be publicly released. Photos should be submitted in groupings of three due to the gallery format of S'more. Videos of live performances may also be accepted.

February 2020

April 2020

September 2020

November 2020

January 2021

March 2021

October 2021