Northeast Academy Students Celebrate The Arts

Students played the violin, painted pottery, watched a fencing demonstration and tried out modern dance at Northeast Academy’s Celebrate the Arts day Thursday.

Two parents at the school – Clare Rogers and Nikki Lindy – worked for two months to organize it. They brought in the Fencers School of Connecticut, cooks from Grasso Technical High School, an actress from the Emerson Theater Collaborative, a violinist and others.

The parents arranged for students to learn about Native American Drumming, African Drumming and how to make a flipbook, courtesy of a local author. The Clayroom, a paint your own pottery studio in Groton, donated 300 tiles for children to paint and will fire them in a kiln.

“When you think of art, you think of watercolor on canvass, but it’s so much more than that,” said Lindy.

Rogers added, “We wanted to expose the kids to different ways they could learn to create.”

The two parents said they took on the event after learning it might not happen this year. Rogers presented a theater workshop at the program last year.

“I had a ball, and the kids had a ball,” she said. She added that she couldn’t let the students miss out on it this year.

Judy Leonard, interim assistant principal, said the children thoroughly enjoyed it.

“The kids have been really excited,” she said.