Last weekend we had our second annual "Summertime Celebration Art-y Party Awards Luncheon" at the Ritz Museum and Theater in the historic LaVilla neighborhood of downtown.
This event is an afternoon of uplifting, congratulating, supporting, appreciating, and most importantly, CELEBRATING the JWJ artists and their families because they deserve it!
There were almost 80 fabulous folks in attendance and we certainly celebrated in style! We all enjoyed a delicious catered lunch while mingling and catching up about everyone's summer adventures and reminiscing about last year's creative accomplishments in art club and beyond.
The dress was code: "Fun, Fancy, and Fabulous" and everyone's awesome attire went along just smashingly with our Kuhn flowers photo booth backdrop. Not to mention the crazy, silly wigs, hats, and props lent to us from the Fletcher high School theater department! (Thank you Mrs. Fallon!)
https://www.kuhnflowers.com/
http://www.ritzjacksonville.com/
Our photo memory books and award certificates are printed at the Knopf & Sons Bindery right here in historic Springfield and I am more impressed with every single order I see of theirs. They do an incredibly professional job and they always help to support public school teachers. If you like our photo books as much as I do, contact them for any and all of your printing and binding needs:
http://www.knopfbindery.com/
After lunch, we watched an in depth slideshow presentation commemorating all of the public and campus art projects the students created last year. There were fun photos from the We Rise festival, Color Me Kona, Jax Maker's Faire at MoSH, Empty Bowls Luncheon donation, Beaches Earth Day Festival, the list of their accomplishments just goes on, and on, and on, and on ... These guys ROCK!
Major thanks to Ms. Avery Vaughn for her mad graphic design skillllz in our photo book layout!!!
Ms. Holloways personal favorite portion of the event is the special student speeches. This year, we had three artists step up to the mic and share their passion for all things ART.
I know you are all regretting not being in attendance since you missed hearing these inspiring speeches, but don't y'all worry because you know I got ya covered ... Below you can read the tear jerking speeches for yourself. I am SO PROUD of these amazing artists and all they've done!!!
Roosevelt's words always inspire me and I reeeeeally think he touched the students this year too.
Now you may notice that the images posted in this thread seem to have some repeat students and I'm gonna let y'all in on a little secret ... I didn't take a single picture all afternoon!!!!!!!!! :( :( :(
These photos are fantastic and all, but I wish so badly that we would have had way more! So, in typical Ms. Holloway fashion, I am already planning ahead for next summer and have hired a student photographer to document the entire party! Makayla Blanton owns her own digital camera and will be moving onto high school by this time next year (insert crying face emoji!) and she is up for the creative challenge of being our JWJ photographic historian! Career in the arts in her future???
***That being stated, if you were there and have some share-able pics, please email the to me!***
So, as we soak up these final days of summer, we also benefit from looking back over what we have created, established, and achieved already. The arts are in everything and the JWJ artists have helped spread the magic and power that art encompasses all over Jacksonville. (And we ain't nowhere near quitting any time soon!)
From the bottom of my heart, I can't stress how deeply I appreciate the support and participation of all the JWJ artists and their families. There is strength in numbers and we artists are in this together! The more support we have, the stronger and better connected our communities become, and if you are reading this, YOU have helped that happen (even just a little bit!) this year ....... through ART.
See you all soon in Ms. Holloway's art room for the start of the 2019-2020 school year! Yay, ART!