Budding musicians from Antioch School District 34 have been practicing their scales, and young artists have been creating original drawings and pastels to get ready for the 10th annual Antioch Art Crawl on May 7.
Student artwork will be hanging in the windows of shops along Main Street and side streets for visitors to see, and young musicians will sing and play instruments at the band shell on Skidmore Drive during the event. Visitors can join in art-making by creating colorful chalk drawings on the sidewalks or painting a joint masterpiece with help from the Antioch Fine Arts Foundation.
“It’s the student art talent of our community,” said Barbara Porch, executive director of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce. “It’s what makes the art crawl so unique.”
The event, which began 10 years ago, is hosted by the chamber, the Village of Antioch, School District 34 and the fine arts foundation.
The school district started the program to help children understand they are a part of a community, said event coordinator Sarah Amrein, music teacher at Oakwood Elementary School in Antioch.
“It’s a great way for the village and the school district to work together. It’s one of our first goals,” Amrein said.
Another goal this year to celebrate the 10th anniversary is for every student in the district — roughly 1,500 students — to contribute a piece of art to be shown around the village, she said.
One art teacher told students to choose a masterpiece to show off, and that prompted a teaching moment on what a masterpiece is, she said. Some of them created works based on “The Great Wave of Kanagawa” by famous Japanese artist Hokusai, she said.
“It is awesome the way they were able to create their own wave in the style of the artist,” Amrein said. One student artist added origami boats and fish to his masterpiece.
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Other students are working on turning Vincent Van Gogh’s famous “Starry Night” into a 3-D artwork, she added.
“It’s going to be a menagerie of pieces for all grade levels including our 3-D from tech art, made on 3-D printer. Our poster this year is created by our graphic artist middle schoolers,” she said.
“Art is meant to be shared — beyond the school building. Here students can share their art with the world.”
Visitors can not only observe art but also create their own. Last year, the Antioch Arts Foundation brought a large canvas and taught people how to paint flowers. The canvas full of flowers painted by different artists is hanging in the school district office.
The school’s choir and instrumental groups will perform at the band shell on Skidmore Drive.
Visitors can hear the middle school jazz band perform as well as participate in singalongs with kindergartners, first-graders, second-graders and third-graders, she said. Student from the orchestra will play solos as well.
“This is a way for students to share their performances not just in a gym (where they play concerts) but in a band shell outside in the community,” Amrein said.
Visitors can also hear the Dixie Dudes, a local jazz group, perform during a rubber duck race at 2 p.m. Participants purchase tags that get placed on the rubber ducks, then hope their duck gets to the finish line first. Prizes will be awarded, with proceeds going to the District 34 Foundation.
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
10th Annual Antioch Art Crawl
When: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. May 7
Where: William E. Brook Memorial Entertainment Center, 900 Skidmore Drive, Antioch
Information: 847-395-2233; www.antioch.il.gov