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Maud Williams High: Making Art Out Of Nothing At All
posted (May 9, 2012)
Last night, we told you that Maude Williams High won first place for schools in the Coca Cola Art Competition.

It's a major accomplishment for the school - not only because it won $1,500.00 dollars - but because most of the times when Maude Williams is in the news, it's some kind of bad news.

It's no secret that the school has many at-risk students - but what you probably wouldn't know is that the school with the top art project doesn't even have an expressive arts programme.

We asked one of the teachers who stayed after-school to help the students in this art project about arts at Maud Williams:

Agnes Menzies - Teacher, Maud Williams Highschool
"Right now, we don't have anything presently in place. What we did with the students - what I did - was that we met after school, and we stayed here until 9 at night to get that canvass ready for that competition. Without the arts, how can these kids show their talent? I think that our focus here should not be just academics, but we should enhance what they have artistically, and they can also lean back on something like the arts, drama, or some other form of expressive arts, so that they can. I probably think that this would enhance their self-esteem as well, and look for something constructive, rather than just being idle on the streets. We are very happy about that billboard out there. We didn't have the resources for it. The principal, along with teachers and I - we pooled together, and we made it happen. We also met after school with the students to get that done. We also took 3 days to get that done. We would definitely need to get a sponsor to sponsor us for next year. We need - of course we have space. We have an art room, and we would need paint, paint brushes and stuff like that to get the program going."

To its credit, last year at the High School Festival of the Arts, Maud Williams got the award for the most outstanding school in the arts section.

If you'd like to help them jump start a programme, you can call Ms. Bowen at 604-5253.

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