Kings County Arts in Action
May 2023 Edition
Brought To You By Kings County Office of Education
Our Purpose
Arts Education Throughout Kings County
Hanford High Performance Season
The Hanford High School Choral Music Department has a busy 2023 performance season!
They just closed our spring musical, "The Little Mermaid," with their drama department at the beginning of February. It was a successful show, with a cast of over 40 singers, actors, and dancers from Hanford High. Kayla West, the drama teacher, directed the show. Kayla rallied the cast and members of the performing arts department in January to go see, "Dear Evan Hansen," at the Saroyan Theater in Fresno and had a wonderful time!
Congratulations to Isaiah Frenes, Faith Rees, Daniela Rios Sanchez, Ember Smith, Sienna Price, and Daisy Oliviera for auditioning and making the 2023 CCDA All-State Honor Choirs. They performed Saturday, February 18th at the Saroyan Theater for a sold out crowd!
The Hanford High Choirs, under the direction of Jennifer McGill, will be singing in the California Music Educators Association (CMEA) Choral Festival at the First Presbyterian Church in Hanford on Wednesday, March 8, 2023 starting at 8:00 a.m. Hanford High is hosting the festival for the second year in a row and it has grown from 18 choirs last year to 30 choirs coming up in March! They are very excited to work in conjunction with the Hanford West Choral Music Department, under the direction of Dorie Hibanada Gomez, to host this wonderful event. Parents and community members are welcome to attend!
The Choir and American Sign Language Departments, under the direction of Jennifer McGill and Melanie Pulliam, will perform our Annual Pops Concert Wednesday, May 17th and Thursday, May 18th at 7:00 p.m. in the Presentation Center. This year their show is, "Dancing Through the Decades." Join them in this energetic concert with over 175 performers singing, signing, and dancing to your favorite Pop Tunes through the years. Tickets are $10.00.
They are looking forward to many more collaborative events in the future and hope to see you at some of our upcoming concerts! Thank you for your support!
Lemoore High Students Earn National Honor Choir Spots
Akers Students Explore Value and Texture
Students in Mr. Fraley's art classes at Akers School have been focusing on the elements of value and texture. Each element is emphasized as a part of a complete composition. Students learn to think as an artist using liberty to manipulate images and ideas. The first set of student work comes from the 8th grade and are glue line drawings with charcoal value shading. Students were to show control of the medium by blending smoothly and choosing areas of high contrast.
The second set comes from the 7th graders who were to draw a still life using texture rubbings. They were given the choice of the subject matter within the drawing as they decided which textures to use.
The third set of examples comes from a 2-point perspective lesson. 6th graders drew a city corner, added preferred details to the buildings and applied pencil shading for light and shadow.
The 4th and 5th graders worked with form and shading. One project was in full color and the other was with pencil only. The colored geometric and organic forms were made in a surrealistic setting with the addition of tunnels, bumps, ribbons, floating around in vast space. In another drawing, the students converted geometric shapes into forms from an aerial viewpoint and added settings around them to form the appearance of a city.
Artwork to the right is by Harlow Althaus; background art for the newsletter is by Allison Babauta.
Hanford West Film and Music Career Preparation
Hanford West students preparing for careers in Film and Music Production recently participated in Creative Careers Leadership Lab Challenges. Creative Careers Leadership Lab is a student leadership organization. Hanford West students are participating in its piloting this year. Our student filmmakers were prompted with the challenge of telling a story in which the arts made the difference in someone's life. Joseph Aguirre and Yunni Munoz both chose to tell stories in which music set the tone and helped people cope with life struggles.
Anthony Atilano was inspired by Kanye West and found samples of a 60's church choir for his arrangement that he calls "Father..." The song is intended to be uplifting, providing hope and encouragement to the listener. This piece was arranged on a free cloud based music production software called Soundtrap.
Brothers- Short Film, Director: Joseph Aguirre
JC Montgomery Music Video Production
Students enrolled at JC Montgomery have an opportunity to participate in a Multimedia Production Career Technical Education course. They are currently working with local artist Worms Ali and producer/teaching artist Josh "OPTX" Levine to write, record, storyboard, and film music videos in which students envision their dreams for the future. Students also had the opportunity to work with Urbanists Collective artist Joanna Sanchez to design artwork for their songs. Stay tuned for their music video to drop! You can subscribe to keep up with JCM student projects on the site YouTube channel.
Corcoran High School Arts Experiments with Techniques
Corcoran High School students in Mr. Alvarez's art classes have been busy:
- Art I students were introduced to form and value. They experimented with still life solids as a final exercise.
- Art II students experimented with matching colors from masterpieces and adding a music instrument of their choice. They were able to select which media to use while creating.
- Students in both classes have also been working on pencil portraits.
Hanford West Choir Students' Brush with Fame
The Show Went on at Lemoore High School
Gradients and Sculpture at Pioneer Middle School
Hanford High Students Recognized
Drawing:
1st, Naiomi Behrens
Award of Excellence:
Sabrina Hernandez
3 Dimensional Art:
2nd, Angelina Lidstone
Award of Excellence:
Makenzy Bribiesca
Gabrielle Carillo
Julissa Guerrero
Jayden Castro
Ceramics students also recently created incense burners for his class.
Hanford High Spring Arts
Hanford Elementary School District Spring Highlights
From Bill Wilkinson, Band Director for Hanford Elementary School District:
It has been a busy and prosperous spring for our HESD Band program. Three years have passed since the onset of the covid lockdown, and our band program is still recovering from the shockwave of that event. True springtime renewal, our program is showing signs of new life and soon we will be back to our pre-covid prosperity.
TKMEA Honor Bands
A sign of this is our increase in participation in honor groups. We had eleven students from JFK, Jefferson Charter Academy, and Woodrow Wilson earn spots in the Tulare-Kings County junior high school honor band in February; a nine-student increase from last year. Congratulations also to Aaron Lopez, Woodrow Wilson 8th grader, who participated and earned 1st chair trombone honors, in the TKMEA Honor Jazz Band in April.
CMEA Band Festivals
In March we saw a return to participating in the California Music Educators Association (CMEA) Band Festival. Our three junior high school programs attended the Kingsburg CMEA festival. Band festivals are an important component to the junior high band experience as it is a culmination of two months of intensive preparation of a concert program, performed before a panel of adjudicators.
In May twenty-four band students attended the CMEA Solo & Ensemble festival at COS, Visalia. 21 students earned a superior rating through their various solos and small ensembles. Chamber music is a fun and excellent vehicle to increase student musicianship.
Keeping things in the proper perspective, adjudicated festivals provide good insight into both student growth and teaching practices – it's a valuable tool!
HESD All-District Honor Band
In March fifty of our HESD band students participated in the 2nd annual All-District Band. The band’s guest conductor was Lisa Butts, retired Hanford West band director. She expertly prepared the honor band for its concert in only six hours of rehearsal! This was a fun and engaging experience for our more advanced band students.
HESD Band Assessments
Shifting gears to our elementary program, our 5th and 6th grade band students participated this April in our annual band medal assessments. Students prepared and individually performed a page of leveled songs and etudes to earn various levels of band medals. This assessment is a great tool to place students in the appropriate level of band class the following year.
Band Trips
Lastly, a sign that we are moving past covid is the welcome return of our end-of-the-year band trips. Our HESD 6th Graders who participated in band for two years were treated to a trip to Fresno State to watch a Fresno State wind symphony rehearsal. Students from nine elementary schools attended this very fun trip which is also used to introduce them to instruments beyond the basic six elementary offering of flute, clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, trombone, and percussion. Later in May our three junior high band students will be attending a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain to culminate a productive school year. The band recruiting aspect of these types of trips is not lost on the HESD music team!
Young Masters Show
We here at the Kings Art Center are honored to host the Young Masters High School Art Exhibition each year. There is so much young talent in Kings County that it was very difficult to choose who received what award. We are so proud of our Kings County High School artists and we look forward to offering more classes for the High School age range and we invite all students to become members of the Kings Art Center so they can continue to show their work and also sell it. Thank you to Kings County of Education Superintendent Todd Barlow for sponsoring this show each year.
Upcoming Kings County Arts Events
Arts Resources for Educators
General Resources
The Kings County Office of Education VAPA website has resources and information about the arts in Kings County.
Arts Framework Resources
CCSESA Arts Initiative has provided resources for arts educators to utilize as they navigate the newly adopted arts framework. Here is the link to access these resources.
Arts Based Podcasts and YouTube Channels
- Central Valley Music Educators Podcast with Rob Bentley - The Central Valley Music Educators Podcast is hosted by LUESD Music Teacher Rob Bentley. Since August, he has produced nearly 30 episodes dedicated to inspiring and informing educators with diverse episodes such as maintaining vocal health, work life balance, choosing repertoire, and interviewing retired educators about their time in the classroom. The show can be found on social media or on the website at www.cvmepodcast
- The Music Tech Teacher Podcast
- Virtual Orchestration Channel