![Hosting the SCLA Casptone Mentor Dinner outside allowed for more attendees on September 27, 2021 at Silver Creek. This event would’ve usually been held inside. According to Lauren Kohn, a SCLA 12 teacher, “If we have a higher number of people, as long as we can host the event outside, then that seems to be keeping every[one] safe”.](https://schsnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sxMAIGbSYGodZkqmrvTi5YWcJ1ssWA08ApkeMLpp-900x675.jpeg)
Fine art is not hard to come across within the walls of Silver Creek High School. Art pieces line the walls created by previous and current students. A new installation will be joining the walls by the end of the school year, in the C-Wing hallway: an interactive mouse gallery wall.
It started when Katherine Giese, an art teacher in C104, ordered a box of small frames from Amazon and let her AP Art students decide what to put in them. Eventually, they came up with mouse portraits. When asked about the purpose of the wall, Giese described a myriad of reasons behind the portraits.
“This allows many students to look at different kinds of artwork and appreciate artwork and to think about what it would be like to be a mouse and to visit a gallery where great works of art are included,” Giese said.
Once the pieces get installed, viewers will be able to witness both original and parodies of famous pieces of work featuring mice. Some familiar pieces include “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” and “The Last Supper“.
The artist behind the mouse version of “The Last Supper”, Mira Talusani, has positive recollections of working on their project.
“What I enjoyed most about this rat-themed gallery wall was just being able to pretty much do what we wanted, we really didn’t have many restrictions on it for concept or for execution,” Talusani said. “It allowed us to be a lot more creative than we usually get to be in school.”
Another AP Art student, Cecilia Couch, elaborated on what their favorite part of the mouse gallery wall is.
“It’s a lot more fun taking everyone’s ideas and making something of it than doing it yourself.” Couch said. Students participating in this project were volunteers. The AP Art students were given the option to either participate in this project or paint Silver Creek’s cow statue, which is a massive cow statue being painted into an underwater scene. Many students chose to collaborate and put their best effort into this new feature.
The biggest challenge with creating the gallery wall has been the length of effort being put into it. It’s taken a lot more time to finish than originally anticipated. If moved to another class with more strict time constraints, it could make it easier to display it on the wall in a timely manner. Once the gallery wall is finished it is expected to stay up in the wing until the end of the year.
Although this project has brought joy to only students in AP Art, Giese hopes to one day expand this project into other art classes to hopefully boost its success. If students are planning on registering for an art class next year, this might be a factor to consider.
