Kenwood Public Schools - WKTV Journal

*KDL youth paraprofessional Claire O’Tsuji always comes with new books in hand. (School News Network)*

Valleywood Middle School students noshed on pizza and sipped milk while listening to synopses of popular teen reads, which they would later have the chance to check out.

Kent District Library is a proud sponsor of SNN

While they sat back and listened during the monthly Literary Lunch in the school’s Collaboration Center, Kent District Library employee Claire O’Tsuji presented on “How Train Your Dragon,” by Cressida Cowell.

“Hiccup is the smallest viking on the island, and his dad is the strong bearded muscle-y viking, and really wants Hiccup to grow up and become a big, strong viking like himself,” O’Tsuji said. “But Hiccup is Hiccup, and they have to find and train a dragon.”

Seventh-grader Elizabeth King has a slice while learning about books. (School News Network)

The Gaines Township Branch youth paraprofessional also presented on “Moo” by Sharon-Creech and “Ghost” by Jason Reynolds. Literary Lunch, a partnership with KDL, has drawn students in for books sessions during lunch for the past two years so they can learn about titles and check them out.

“I usually bring a lot of new books and graphic books, ones that the schools don’t have readily accessible in big volumes,” she said. “It gives students a break from the school day, and if I can introduce new and exciting books that might not be what they usually read… it’s always a strong way to create good readers.”

Seventh-grader Byron Buter chooses two new KDL books to check out. (School News Network)

She also does a 10-minute read-aloud and has encouraged students to sign up for library cards, which nearly all students now have, thanks to the library partnership.

“I can only stock so many books, so it opens up another entire world of availability that I can necessarily provide,” added Dani Rieker, Valleywood media clerk. “Being able to partner with KDL has been fantastic.”

Seventh-grader Byron Buter settled down to read from KDL books he was checking out. “We get to pick from a whole bunch of different books and hope we find something that’s interesting,” he said.

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By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

If you head down to ArtPrize this year, chances are you won’t be able to miss the large group of fish swimming across the Holiday Inn Grand Rapids Downtown.

The piece, which faces Pearl Street across from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and near the U.S. 131 entrance/exit ramps, is the ArtPrize entry of artist and Kentwood Public School teacher Jerry Berta.

Berta worked with students from the Kentwood Public Schools. Students glued laser cut scraps together for the fish which were arranged to create a giant wave of fish, just like a school of fish swimming together. According to Berta’s artist statement on the ArtPrize website, the piece – titled “We Are All Different Fish But We All Swim Together!” – is about diversity and how people may be different but they can work together to create a better world.

“This is one of the biggest pieces at ArtPRize created by the most diverse student body in the state,” Berta said in his statement. Kentwood Public Schools has more than 70 different languages spoken at its buildings with the City of Kentwood know of its diverse population with residents from such countries as Vietnam, Korea, and Bosnia.

Students, staff, and parents from Kentwood’s Discovery, Meadowlawn, Explorer and Bowen elementary schools helped bring this piece together. Students from Valleywood Middle School, under the guidance of Alicia Fuller, and East Kentwood High School, under the guidance of Jon Bouck, and students from Charlevoix’s St. Mary’s School, also contributed to the project.

Berta, who lives in Rockford and is the man behind Dinerland and Rosie’s Diner, is just one of several artists representing the Wyoming and Kentwood areas at this year’s ArtPrize taking place in downtown Grand Raids through Oct. 8.

Marking its ninth year, ArtPrize is an open, independently organized international art competition that takes place 19 days in the fall. More than $500,000 in prizes are awarded each year which includes a $200,000 prize awarded by a public vote and another $200,000 prize awarded by a jury of art experts. Round 1 voting is currently underway until Sept. 30. On Oct. 1, the Final 20 are announced with Round 2 voting for just those in the Final 20 opening. Round 2 voting closes Oct. 5 with winners announced at the ArtPrize Awards.

Also having an entry in this year’s event is Godfrey Lee Public Schools kindergarten teacher Susan Sheets Odo, whose piece ,“A Colorful Michigan,” is at Grand Woods Lounge, 77 Grandville Ave. SW. Odo, who is also a Wyoming Public Schools board member, said in her artist statement that “A Colorful Michigan” is an interactive coloring piece. Featuring landmarks of Michigan mixed with designs, mandalas, floral patterns, and patterns found in the different cultures of the people who live in West Michigan, visitors are invited to leave their mark by helping to color the piece.

Wyoming Public Schools mentor Khalilah Yvonne hopes to encourage youth all over the world to stand up and let their voices be heard through her piece “Silence Broken.” Located at Grand Rapids City Hall, 300 Monroe Ave. NW, Apt. 4, the piece is based on Yvonne’s own personal experience of being a victim of sexual assault, according to her artist statement.

If you head over to Grand Valley Artists, Inc., at 1345 Monroe Ave. NW, 140, you will be able to see Wyoming resident Nona (Voss) Bushman’s unique jewelry pieces. A graduate of Wyoming Park High School and Western Michigan University, Bushman’s piece is “Lost in Your Beauty.” Also showing at Grand valley Artists, Inc. is Wyoming resident Katherine Kreutziger’s painting “Autumn Hunt of a Lone Wolf.”

Other local artists are: Wyoming resident Nicole Bluekamp’s “Intoxication of Passion” is at Rockwell Republic, 45 S. Division Ave., and Wyoming resident Karin Nelson’s piece “Trees in the Park” is at the Women’s City Club, 254 E. Fulton St.

There are more than 170 venues for this year’s ArtPrize and one of them is not that far from Wyoming and Kentwood. For the first time, the Gerald R. Ford International Airport is a venue featuring seven artists with works in the upstairs observation deck, east end of the terminal building, and outdoors under the trademark GFIA canopy and welcome wall.

The pieces featured at the airport are “TOTEM of a Michigan Woman” by Sharron Ansell, of Kalamazoo; “Sanutario de la Monarch,” by Dalice Ceballos, of Mexico; “We are Fruitport Building on a Legacy,” by Fruitport High School Visual Arts Team; “Our Love Connects All Happiness,” by Haruko Furukawa, of New Zealand; “Fly Away With Me,” by Mariia Rykhlovska, of Los Angeles; “Elements of a Japanese Garden,” by Judy A. Steiner, of Grand Rapids; and “Kitty Hawk,” by Brett Walker, of East Tawas, Mich.

Just further up on the East Beltline, the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, 1000 E. Beltline NE, is also a venue again this year. For more on what is featured at the Gardens, click here.

To learn more about the artists, venues, voting or to register to vote in this year’s ArtPrize competition, go to artprize.org.