Left to right: English and Language Arts teacher Kristen Biancuzzo, WSU professor Sean Casey, and Art teacher Karen West. (Photo by Peter Currier)
WESTFIELD- Juniors at Westfield High School are undergoing a project that is designed to teach them a combination of interview skills, various forms of art, and give them a perspective of an average Westfield resident.
Westfield High School English and Language Arts teacher Kristen Biancuzzo is teaching a class called ‘Westfield Promise,’ which gives certain students the opportunity to earn college credits before they graduate high school. The class takes place over both semesters rather than just one, like most high school classes. It consists of students from low income families, or those who would be the first generation of their family to attend college.
The students in Biancuzzo’s class have been working in conjunction with students in Sean Casey’s class at Westfield State University. The high school juniors attended WSU’s orientation during the summer and have been reading the same book assigned to WSU freshman. This year’s book, Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, deals heavily with identity according to Biancuzzo. One of the goals of the class is to complete a project related to the book being read.
MacKenzie Kone showing off some examples of her art work during a joint session of Kristen Biancuzzo and Karen West’s classes. (Photo by Peter Currier)
“Last year’s book was ‘Visual Intelligence’, by Amy Herman. So the students painted a mural on Meadow Street as their project,” said Biancuzzo, “I am working with our art teacher, Karen West, who has always wanted to do a portrait project.”
After some brainstorming, Biancuzzo and West chose to do an interview and portrait project. Biancuzzo’s class has been tasked with finding Westfield residents to interview about their life and their dreams. West’s class will make different types of portraits of those same people. At the end of the semester in June, the students from both classes will put on an art show displaying all their work.
“We decided to do it as a part of the Westfield 350,” said Biancuzzo.
Originally, the limit for the number of people to be interviewed was set at 50. However, Biancuzzo said, the project quickly evolved into something a bit bigger than they originally intended. Another class has suggested getting involved in the project as well. Karen Whitaker, an instructional technology teacher at Westfield High School who teaches different kinds of multimedia courses, suggested that her students edit a video that displays a time-lapse of the portraits and presents an animated version of them. The video would be shown during the art show in June. However, they needed to find a space to hold this art show.
“In the process of trying to curate the art show, we came up with a list of locations,” said Biancuzzo, “I got involved with Tina Gorman and the senior center. She offered their space to hold the art show.”
Brody Garfield shows off one of several pieces of his artwork on display. He will be doing some of the portraits of the interview subjects, although his specialty is drawing animals. (Photo by Peter Currier)
Gorman’s offer came with a condition: The project had to involve the seniors in Westfield somehow. Biancuzzo agreed to allow some of the interview and portrait subjects to be seniors. Biancuzzo said that there is a student who volunteers at the Soldier’s Home in Holyoke. Some students expressed interest in finding Westfield veterans living there to be subjects for the project.
The students of Biancuzzo and West’s classes spent this week practicing their interview skills by asking each other the questions they will ask the subjects. One such question was, “What was your dream as a child? What is the earliest instance of your life that you remember feeling passionate about something?” Some students also practiced drawing portraits of their fellow students to gauge roughly how long it takes to draw someone.
Other planned subjects include Barbara Goshea, a nurse that cares for Amanda Dalton, who is a student confined to a wheelchair. Biancuzzo said that the two will be interviewed as a pair. She added that if anybody in Westfield would like to volunteer as a subject for the project then they are free to reach out to her. However, she noted that there is no guarantee that they can use every person who volunteers, as they are still trying to adhere to a limit.
Left to right: Barbara Goshea, Amanda Dalton, Madison Curbelo, and Alexis Reyes. Goshea is a nurse working with Dalton, who is confined to a wheelchair. Curbelo, who hopes to be songwriter, is interviewing the pair while Reyes will be making a portrait of the two. (Photo by Peter Currier)
There is a consideration to not only use the interview material alongside the portrait, but to merge the two together. Biancuzzo and Whitaker have floated the idea of using the words from the interview in each portrait somehow. Biancuzzo said that most of the interviews will be completed in late February or early March.
“I’m pretty excited for this year’s project,” said Bianccuzzo.
