Welcome to Smithtown High School East's School Improvement Team blog. This blog is a space to communicate some of the activities the SIT Team is focusing on and our work with the school at large and share what we do. We are presently a 6 person team including myself, Tim Needles, along with Rich Forzano, Kim Brosnan, Jason Pettis, Donna Popowitch, and a parent Kerry DeJesus.
This month on Thursday April 21, 2016, notable UK artist Jon Burgerman will be visiting us at Smithtown East to collaborate on a mural together with students from the National Art Honor Society. We will be painting in color alongside Jon after he creates an outline for the mural which will look similar to the one above created at the AOL offices.
The mural will be 4' x 16' and it will be located outside the glass wall of the main cafeteria. Jon is an artist we have been learning about in art classes for a number of years and were lucky to have him visit Smithtown while he's in the US. Burgerman, whose work is exhibited worldwide and can be found in the public collection of London's Victoria and Albert Museum, was an artist the students were learning about in my classes and after a chance meeting at a gallery opening I reached out to him about a collaboration.
The funds for Jon's travel, supplies, and other costs came through student fundraising in the art honor society and a grant from the Smithtown Childrens Foundation. The project will be part of an ongoing school improvement project the SIT team has been working on for the courtyard and it begins a new tradition of refurbishing the school to celebrate Earth Day. If you are free and want to stop by feel free-our lunch break is at noon!
