The Sachem Central School District is pleased to announce participation in Artist Collaborative Community Sculpture Project. Using the power of art and unity through this permanent contemporary sculptural installation to bridge cultural differences of students including those with English as a second language through a unified art piece.
Students have collaborated with each other and artist Beth Giacummo to develop a design and form that best represented their collective cultural identities by translating abstract sentiments into visual form. The design they felt that best suited individual, yet collective cultural identity, is a large inflatable DNA strand. Students whose countries of origin include: Portugal, Turkey, Philippines, Mexico, China, Vietnam, El Salvador, Venezuela, Pakistan, India, Bengal, Haiti, Honduras, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Peru, Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, Columbia, China, and Vietnam have designed portions of the sculpture which represent different countries from around the world. Once completed this piece will be displayed in the lobby of Sachem High School East indefinitely.
The students came together through the ESL/Diversity Club, whose mission is to develop leaders in the school and community by cultivating an appreciation for diversity. Members have worked to facilitate socialization of the school and community’s newest student members by fostering a friendly environment to enhance the academic and social skills of students in need. Club members range from beginners, intermediate and advanced level English speakers to general education and Advanced Placement non-ESL students.
Social studies teacher, Michael Jannace, and 30-year ESL teacher and program facilitator, Scott Hofer collaborated for years to create and improve a constantly evolving learning environment for culturally and linguistically diverse learners through differentiated instructional experiences that benefit all students, regardless of cultural background or country of origin. Combining this collaboration with the arts through the efforts of Loretta Corbisiero, Art Department Chairperson, and Beth Giacummo, artist and Exhibition Director/Curator of the Islip Art Museum students are celebrating individual and collective cultural identities through art.
The universal language of art and a creative spirit will transform the lobby of Sachem HS East into a celebration of diversity. The sculpture will be installed and presented to the community in early May 2015.
This program is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and is administered by The Huntington Arts Council, Inc.