As the school year comes to an end, the seniors finish their senior projects, a multi-week-long individual project tailored to their interests, required for their Germantown Academy graduation. This year, several students chose art-related projects, including Libby Brewer ‘25, Hannah Greenfield ‘25, Julia Coren ‘25, Caroline Smith ‘25 and Katie Martin ‘25.
“Creativity is a superpower,” Ms. Sara Krupnick-Ritz, US Art Teacher, said. “There’s
something really magical that happens in any art studio where you take nothing and you create something.”
Ms. Ritz recounts her students’ capabilities in art and how their imaginative process has been important in the making of their projects. She praises her students’ efforts in committing to a long-term project and describes how they make an impact on the community with their participation.
“What’s really cool about this is there’s going to be a mural that lives at GA,” Ms. Ritz said. “for a very long time that’ll serve as a record of this really interesting, creative work.”
The “Mind, Body, and Heart” mural that four seniors, Greenfield, Coren, Smith and Martin, worked on with the Philadelphia Mural Arts team and muralist Daniel Lipshutz is, and will continue to be, an important part of the GA community and history. Taking inspiration from all parts of the Academy, including the Lower School, Middle School, and Upper School, the artwork serves as a symbol of unity.
These four have put effort into their contributions, which have had a large part in the process of the development of the mural. Not only have they helped a lot in making the base painting, but they are also working on detailed finishing touches.
While the other seniors chose to dedicate their time to working on the mural, Brewer has decided to take up a project involving theater. She collaborated with producers for a musical called “Frank and Bean,” which was hosted at the Boston Children’s Hospital KidStage during the Boston University Radio Festival on May 31, and worked on making props for it.
Brewer’s process of developing the props involves shopping for already existing structures or clothing that she reworks to create an entirely different piece to be used in the musical.
“This is my first year ever doing the musical, first year even researching anything theater-wise,” Brewer said. “So I thought it would just be interesting to do something new and different that I hadn’t done before.”
Despite not having much previous knowledge of theatre, Brewer pursued the new experience for her personal interest and benefits in college. Being on the production team not only allowed her to obtain more experience in an artistic theater-making environment, but also allowed her to improve different skills.
“For this project, I specifically improved in time management,” Brewer said. “In the sense that I have a list of items that I need to make in a pretty short amount of time.”
The five seniors, Brewer, Greenfield, Coren, Smith and Martin have all chosen senior art projects that utilize their unique art styles and creative thinking skills. With their dedication to their projects, they were able to make an impact in the community.
“Whenever you do or share good creative thoughts or ideas or beautiful things, it’s like you just put good things out in the world and good things happen,” Ms. Ritz said. “So they can know they did that.”