Ready for takeoff: LaGrange Academy students’ art to display at Hartsfield-Jackson
Published 5:10 pm Monday, December 17, 2018
Those flying international in and out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport go past the youth art exhibit, which will feature pieces from eight LaGrange Academy students in the spring. Pieces by Trent Cagle, Michael Hulsey, Jackson Hill, Harold Hill, Kayla McBride and Bo Beall will be on display for six months at the airport.
Tiffany Ammerman, LaGrange Academy lower school art teacher for kindergarten and first grade and STEAM teacher, said she spoke to another teacher who acts as an airport liaison who gets students’ pieces in the youth gallery.
“When we were making decisions on which pieces we wanted to be chosen, we wanted to make sure we had a nice array of the kindergartners and first graders, and also wanted to represent the middle school as well, because (some of) these pieces are from my art class, whereas (there are two others) from my STEAM class,” Ammerman said. “I wanted the kids to understand that their STEAM projects can also be interpreted as an art piece as well.”
STEAM, or science, technology, engineering, art and math, combines the subjects. Ammerman said they have worked on 3D printing, building catapults and, for McBride and Beall’s pieces, made mathematical art on black paper with colored pencils.
“We were talking about various curves, and a lot of mathematical art was talked about in that particular lesson, and then I said, ‘If you want to change that, you want to make it your own thing, go for it,’” Ammerman said. “That’s what they did. Those two kids are very artistic, very creative.”
Ammerman said they were talking about curves of pursuit in that lesson.
“You just drew lines and overlapped them, and you colored it by the lines to make a shadow of them in the inside triangle,” McBride, who’s in eighth grade, said.
Ammerman said the students and their families can take tours of the art gallery at the airport as well. Visitors should pre-plan with security and tell them when they want to see the display.
“They don’t necessarily have to purchase a flight,” Ammerman said.
Other pieces featured are a castle, tigers and a paper collage robot. Kindergartner Cagle worked on piece that featured a tiger.
“My sister has been teaching me,” Cagle said.
Ammerman said she would like to get students work featured on a global scale.
“I would really love for the community to keep a watch on our school and keep watching out for our STEAM program because we’re really trying to push it out into the community,” Ammerman said.