Skagway students of all ages collected scraps from around town and repurposed them into eye-catching art for the school's fashion show. KHNS reporter Melinda Manson was on the catwalk talking about this.
Skagway School debuted its first wearable art show on April 3rd. This was a fashion event that combined STEM skills, recycling, and art. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Fifth-grader Hudson Gilliams helped emcee the event. We would like to introduce you to 5th grader Rose Perdue. She created a rainbow fairy piece with wings made from paper paint chips.
Gilliams: “Let's welcome this colorful piece of art to the runway!”
(claps and cheers)
Fourth grade teacher Daniel McManus said the idea for the show came from this year's First Lego League theme, Masterpieces.
First Lego League is an engineering and design unit taught in 4th and 5th grade. The second grade students designed costumes for the show and created a Lego performance stage using light and sound. We also had to design the actual stage and decide what music to use.
Stage manager Andrew Nadon assisted music and science consultant Reuben Cash with lighting. Cash also created the projections and danced on stage throughout the production.
Costumes ranged from bubble baths with bathtubs to rock-paper-scissors ensembles. Art teacher Valerie Larsen helped the younger students assemble their “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” pieces. Along with the lower grades, junior high and high school students also participated. Lyla Larson dressed her sister Elliot as the Mushroom Princess.
Fifth-grade teacher Mary Toll sought professional help from out of state. After many long-distance consultations, she flew her mother-in-law from Minnesota to help sew her costume.
It was important for the children that the costumes were made from materials already at hand. Most of the costumes were scavenged from the school grounds or borrowed from the local community. According to fourth grade teacher McManus, she had two new purchases.
“All we bought was gold spray paint, and we had two cans of gold spray paint,” she said.
In the rock-paper-scissors game, fourth-year student Vinya Matsov played the role of rock-paper-scissors. He retrieved a red T-shirt from the school attic, borrowed a pool noodle to make handles for scissors, and wrapped unused silver insulation around his legs. He realized that sometimes you have to sacrifice comfort for fashion.
“Well, I couldn't bend my legs, so that was a problem,” Matzoff said. “And when I took it off, I felt like it was the greatest thing in the world to bend my legs. But as you can see, I couldn't bend my legs and I was stumbling a little bit on the stairs.”
McManus says that through the process, students learned how to tackle technical challenges. She, too, was surprised by the film's success, she says.
“…The fact that we blew everyone's expectations away a little bit was probably the most surprising part was how much fun everyone had,” she said.
