‘Pieces of Positive’

‘Pieces of Positive’Pictured is the promotional poster of OA’s digital art show, “Pieces of Positive,” that includes a QR code that will give readers access to the slideshow published on YouTube. A link for the show is also posted on the OA district’s website, www.oacsd.org, and on their Facebook page. Provided.

Last year, the Owego Apalachin Art Department curated the first district-wide PreK-12 Art Show, “Creative Journeys.” The show featured over 600 works of art and was setup in the Owego Apalachin Middle School gymnasium for the first week of June. Hundreds of students, parents, family, friends and community members came to admire the breathtaking work the participating artists created. 

Beginning in the fall of 2019, plans were already being made for the June 2020 show. The Art department discussed many ways of making the show even larger and greater than the previous year. Art students worked hard, making it easy for the teachers to begin compiling a large collection of exquisite artwork to showcase in June. 

Everything was on track and going extremely well, but then the corona virus pandemic hit and everything came to a stand still.

In a press release, retiring art teacher Susan Camin stated, “We, the art department, feared the idea of a district wide show was completely destroyed. All of us were devastated, not just because of the situation but because our students had worked so incredibly hard and created gorgeous works of art that were not going to get the recognition they deserved.”

Weeks passed and the idea of no art show was eating them alive. Finally, in the beginning of May, they met via Zoom and discussed options. They knew they needed to give the students something. That’s when they decided to create a digital art show. It wasn’t ideal, but it was something.

Over the next three weeks they assembled over 150 pieces of student artwork and created “Pieces of Positive,” an Art slideshow on iMovie. The majority of the featured work was done during the first half of the school year, but a handful of it was created during the distance-learning period. 

The digital art show also features work from Camin. After teaching for 39 years, she has inspired hundreds, if not thousands of students. Her passion for art and teaching can be easily seen in the work her students create. 

A press release regarding the show wrote, “She has been dedicated to her students’ success right up until the end, even during the difficult time of distant learning. Susan could never be replaced and will surely be missed by everyone.”

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