The Fine Art Academy held this summer at Pine Bush High School provided students with the opportunity to truly immerse themselves in art. Janice Barth directed the class but said it was the students themselves who ran with it.

“Many of our projects were very open ended,” said Ms. Barth. “They figured out what they wanted to do.”

One of the most interesting projects they did was to turn old guitars into art pieces. The Youth Empowerment and Sustainability Skills (YESS) club had collected the guitars as a recycling project. Kara Sprague, the club’s advisor, donated the guitars to the Fine Art Academy. Students chose a visual or musical artist or music genre and dedicated the guitar in their honor. They also wrote an artist statement about the project.

Each student also chose a word and created a collage to illustrate the word. They used the actual page from the dictionary then painted or drew their depiction of the word 10 different ways in the collage.

They worked with clay, foam structures, metal embossing and more.

“The word I think of when I see these students and their work is ‘inspiration’,” said Brian Dunn, Pine Bush’s superintendent of schools. “We need people to think outside the box like you. I’m inspired by these students and the work they’ve done.”

Aaron Hopmayer, principal of Pine Bush High School, congratulated the students on their wonderful work and on their commitment to improve their skills at the summer academy.

“I’m so impressed by all of you,” said Mr. Hopmayer. “You chose to give up a chunk of your summer and learn here. We’ve had 240 students opt for summer enrichment. That’s awesome and it makes you stand out.”