Arts students from the 8th, 9th, and 10th grades have been exploring the Costa Rican traditions of masks and lantern, but with a twist!
Masks
Eighth graders made masks modeled on their faces and expressing some aspect of their personality or something which captured their interest. They ranged from patriotic to scary to a metaphorical emblem of life. Ninth and tenth grade visual art students learned traditional methods for creating large masks used for “mascarada”. They chose to portray traditional designs: the devil, a bull, a campesino, and La Segua. Their big discovery was the challenge associated with using traditional materials in such a wet climate and season: mold in a rainbow of colors!
Lanterns
While they created traditional “faroles” in their Civics and Social Studies classes, the high school visual arts students have had the opportunity to explore light as a medium for visual expression in art class, creating light sculptures. Eighth graders have been working on creating traditional reed and paper lanterns inspired by Asian lantern festivals and the light sculptures created by artist Stephen White. They contemplated their future goals and then abstracted forms for their lanterns based on visualizations of these goals. Ninth and tenth grade visual arts students went even further, using light to create sculptures through projections and site specific installations, as well as lanterns. They grappled with the concept of using light the same way an artists uses paint or clay. How can something as ephemeral as light be used to create a work of art? They came up with some interesting solutions and were inspired by the works of artists Margaret O’Rorke, Isamu Noguchi, Cai Guo-Qiang, Ai Wei Wei, and Yayoi Kusama.
These artworks and more will be on display at the Casa de la Cultura in Cobano on October 11th during our Culture Day Art Exhibition and Music Concert. We invite the whole community to join us in this cultural event!
Art and Music Festival
Our goals for the festival are:
Offer a space for cultural exploration and celebration open to the entire peninsular community
Exhibit works of art connected to the festival theme of Cultural Diversity
Host a range of musical presentations
Projected participation during the festival:
Musical presentation from Futuro Verde’s IB music program:
Strings duet
Trio
Middle school band
Musical presentation from all FV grades, prek through secondary
Cultural songs
Visual arts exhibit, gallery style, for students from the Futuro Verde IB visual arts program as well as students in preschool, primary and secondary at FV
Thank you for your support of arts in culture on the peninsula!