Sports earns banquets, dance earns recitals, cheer earns assemblies, theater earns shows, academic programs earn award nights, but what does the art department get to show off their talent and hard work? Art gets WinterFest.

Perry’s Winter Festival, or WinterFest for short, is the school’s two nights of the year to showcase all of the fine arts department’s savvy abilities and expertise. Advanced programs such as symphonic band, chamber orchestra, concert choir, and Movéo performed in the auditorium, while the visual arts will be displayed in the auditorium lobby.

The art department has been a part of WinterFest since its beginning. Due to the limited amount of display areas or galleries around campus, WinterFest is the only main opportunity to professionally display a large quantity of student artwork.

Drawing and painting teacher Marybeth Vogt believes that the Winter Festival “draws people towards our program and will build the program up. It showcases the talented pieces of the students, which not a lot of people see if they’re not in the class.” Sculpture teacher and art department chair Sharon Biemond agreed, and said that “it’s great for the kids to get their work displayed- it creates a sense of pride.”

In order to have a piece showcased, Vogt said it must be “exemplary on the rubric.” Each art teacher chose 8-12 of their best projects to be showcased at the festival. There is no criteria for what pieces should or should not be displayed- they can be knife paintings, drawings, sculptures, mixed media pieces, scratch-board drawings, anything, just as long they are considered exemplary on the rubric.  

Sophomore drawing and painting 1 student Cara Wempe’s drawing was one of the projects chosen to be displayed. Wempe, an European exchange student, was happy that one of her pieces was on display. Integrating into a new and foreign place can be scary, but her artistic talents broke the ice.

Another drawing that was chosen is the work of junior drawing and painting 3 student Rachel Mesquita. She said that having her piece showcased “definitely boosted my confidence in my ability to do art and it is a privilege for it to be displayed in the Winterfest.”

The WinterFest not only advertises Perry’s art program, but inspires students as well.

“Seeing the diversity of pieces and types of art I think it will get more students creatively motivated to take art in the future,” Mesquita explains. Drawing and painting teacher Lorena DeCristofaro agrees and says that seeing the best projects “may motivate students to produce more and better pieces for future display.”