APW Middle Schools teams compete in Art Olympics

On May 2, two teams of students from Altmar-Parish-Williamstown Middle School art classes competed against schools from across New York State at the Olympics of the Visual Arts (OVA) in Saratoga Springs.

OVA is an extracurricular school program for students in New York State, and was founded on the principal that creativity and creative problem solving in the visual arts is vital to a full and enriched life in our technological and scientific society.

The Olympics presents a series of problems that require utilizing historical references, brainstorming, problem solving, and creative solutions.

The competition takes two forms of problem solving. One is long term and requires research, planning and creativity that is completed prior to the competition and the other is a short-term, spontaneous solution and is done on-site during the competition. There were eight different long-term categories all connected by a common theme: the History of Art.

Categories for this year’s competition, included: architecture, photography, fashion design, sculpture, painting, drawing, illustration, and game design.

The two teams from Matt Hill’s art classes at APW Middle School selected architecture and fashion design for their long term competitions.

The boys’ team chose architecture as their category and built a Roman Temple-inspired dog house.

The team members included Steve Cowen, Cole Losito, Shane Lucier, Samuel Sweet, Jakob LaFlesh, Owen Roth, and Jarred Sprague.

They received a third place award for their entry.

The girls’ team from APW competed in the fashion design category and included team members Allayna Frank, Liz Eggleston and Sarah Pappa.

While the team did not place in the top three, their imaginative creation earned them an “honorary” medal from their teacher Mr. Hill.

OVA is sponsored by the New York State Art Teachers Association.

This year marks the 30th year of the annual competition.

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