BARKER HIGH SCHOOL
Art students prove their mettle through Barker sculpture
BARKER — The college portfolio art class at Barker High School got the chance to see their sketches brought to life last week with the unveiling of a student-designed steel sculpture outside the school’s Herbert F. Lugwig Auditorium.
Art teacher Melissa Bowman’s four portfolio students each spent about two months working on designs for the sculpture. Once their designs were finalized, the school and community voted online to choose which design would be built by sculptor Simon Griffis, manager of the Griffis Sculpture Park in Cattaraugus County.
Bowman came up with the idea for the project while taking a graduate school class at Buffalo State College about incorporating art education projects into the community. She began working on the details of the project in January, getting her students involved in making designs and contacting local businesses to sponsor the project.
“It was a long process, and there were a lot of people who helped along the way,” she said.
Senior Dilan Chrysafides created the winning design. He came up with a first design that was too complicated to be built, he said, so he went back to the drawing board, thinking up his winning design while doodling. That led to the center starlike design reminiscent of the Barker Central School district’s emblem.
“It was a spur of imagination. It just hit me,” he said Friday.
Dilan plans to study animation at Villa Maria College in the fall and wants to design the animation for video games.
Seniors Timothy Flanagan and Shannon Mangan, and junior Alex Rasmussem also created designs for the vote. All four students got to visit the Essex Art Studio in Buffalo to learn how to work with metal and build their own small models of their sculpture designs.
“That was the first time I’ve ever worked with metals. At first I had trouble, but once I caught on I got the hang of it,” Chrysafides said.
The students spend a lot of their class time drawing, Shannon said, and were excited to see what they drew on paper brought to life.
“It was cool to see it become something. They taught us how to do it, and we went to do it on our own. None of us wanted to leave the studio,” she said.
Several local businesses and organizations helped sponsor the project, including HSBC. Senior Vice President Janice Wirth said it was one of a number of ways the bank supports the communities in which it does business.
Griffis works with about 22 schools each year on similar projects.
“We use the arts as a catalyst to reinforce New York State education standards,” he said. “The project is really about the spirit of collaboration. One of the lessons is how to coordinate a project to fruition to have a monumental piece of artwork installed.”
Superintendent Roger Klatt said: “It’s a tribute to the whole of the school and the community. This is the community center. It supports that pride and what this has to offer the school and the community. “This is something for these students that will live forever with them. They’ll always be able to point to this. It’s something that will last.”
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