GREENFIELD — Greenfield Central High School art students will be bringing a splash of color to this year’s Riley Festival.
With the help of funding from the Greenfield Police Department, art teachers and students at the high school have been working for two semesters to transform parking barriers that will be used at the festival to block off traffic.
Students have created a wide variety of designs for the project, from references to “Spongebob Squarepants” and “Finding Nemo” to more abstract designs. Others are inspired by art history, like a version of Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” featuring the Greenfield landscape. Art teacher Lisa Sears said her students have worked hard on the project.
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“They’ve gone out to work on the barriers on pretty much any nice day,” Sears said.
Brenna Bonek designed her barrier, which features the image of rainbow-colored hands holding on to each other, to send a message to festival attendees.
“I figured that since it would be something that a lot of people would see, I wanted to do something that meant something. To me, it means equality and that everybody’s different but we need to work together, because we are stronger together. I hope that other people can see that message, because it’s a really important idea to me.”
Brenna said the total amount of time she has spent on designing and painting her barrier across two semesters probably adds up to several days.
Jeff Weiland, another Greenfield-Central art teacher, said the students were asked to create designs that were “a positive reflection on the community” and responded with an impressive variety of concepts.
“There’s a very wide variety, everything from simple graphics to landscapes to references to art history,” Weiland said. “It was a great project, cooperating between the Greenfield police and us and giving the kids an opportunity to do this. Obviously, they’ll be proud to say, ‘Hey, Mom, Dad, look what I made,’ when they go down to the Riley Festival in October.”
Brenna said it was exciting to work on an art piece that would be viewed by such a large audience. The street festival, which runs Oct. 3-6, attracts tens of thousands of visitors.
“I’ve never done something before, and I think it’s really cool that we get this opportunity,” Brenna said.
