OSWEGO, NY – When Oswego area “Dancing with the Stars” packed the floor the dancers were not only surrounded by a large audience, but posters created by Oswego Middle School students that help set the mood and atmosphere for the event.
Art teacher Erin Platten said, “Debbie Anderson, the event coordinator, approached me about having my students create posters for the performances. The theme was ‘Music from Movies’ and she was looking for posters to be in the style of 1950s’ movie posters. I was very excited about the opportunity to not only create the posters for such an important community event, but also the opportunity to highlight the wonderful artistic talent that many of my eighth graders possess.”
The event benefited the local Habitat for Humanity effort.
Platten said, “I taught them about the project and the great work that habitat does. We talked about the importance of racing money for the non profit organization. The students were very excited that they would be donating their time to create posters for such a worthy cause and liked the idea that there work would be seen by a large group of community members.”
Then knowing that the OMS students were born well after the 1950s Platten had another order of business to address as there had to be an explanation of what exactly the movie posters would look like.
She said, “We then discussed what the posters looked like in the 1950s and the importance of aesthetics, focus and order in creating a movie poster. They then spent a day in the library researching the movie they were assigned, followed by a few days of sketching and critiquing until they finally agreed on one design for each poster. The lettering had to be done by me at the last minute before the event because the dancers and choreographers were top secret. The students were so pleased with how they turned out!”
Patten noted that the effort was well-received and very worthwhile.
She said, “They worked beautifully together to create wonderful posters. The dancers loved them, the people loved them, and Debbie loved them. We would do it again in a minute. At the event, the students were recognized in the program, and several times during the evening the posters were spoken about and the middle schoolers honored for their hard work.”
The movie posters highlighted and created for the event were “The Mask,” “Mama Mia,” “Burlesque,” “Moulin Rouge,” “Blue’s Brothers,” “Footloose,” “007” and “Austin Powers.”
The students’ work will be on display during the month of April in the Oswego Education Center main lobby.
Students involved in the creation included Jonathan Wall, Kellie Gorman, Morgan Kosbob, Johnna Tombolillo, Mercedes Whiteside, McKenna Bahner, Michael Carpenter, Chris Chalifoux, Sage Dudley, Ben McCrobie, Matt Lewis, Karl Mosbo, Josh Talamo, Anne Burkett, Robert Schirm II, Kaira Benway, Travis Johnson, Tabitha Madison, Hannah Broadwell, Kaylee Baldwin, Dylan Coleman, Meghan Hourigan, Michael Middleton, Bill Russ, Cheyenne Sanchez, Devin Higgins, Andrew Hook, Tyler Coady, Adam Thompson, Ben Whelsky, Alyssa Laskevicz, Luke Levine, Edward Haynes, Brenna Riley, Liam Peterson, Zachary Gillard, Alexis Bivens, Erin Delaney, Mayraliz Lopez, Taylor Montgomery, Debby Moyett Jaime, Austin Bachelor, Grace Gilbert, Jared Jaquin, Brianna McIntosh, Matt Rodgers, Andrew Osetek, Chris Barlow, Nick Hulbert, Cheyenne Winslow, Sydney Law, Tyler Courtney, Rana Al-Salameh, Mason McGann, Josh Bucher, Mariel Schickling, Alexis Sheridan, Rebecca Victory, Katelin Ballard, Braeden Livesey, Jacob Lofthouse, Michael Favata, Collin Ballou, Austin Levine, Meghan Anderson, Lauren Wallace and Eddie Sheridan.
The event to raise awareness for Habitat for Humanity was a tremendous success and the Oswego Middle School students were proud to be a part of this community project.
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