Emma Nolan, Reporter
@emman_courant
The “This Is Us; Defining Our Heritage” gallery opened on March 11th, at 6:00 pm, with live music, food, and art for many students and parents involved in the gallery.
After the first night of the gallery, NCHS students and teachers were able to experience very diverse pieces of art to represent students heritage and background.
Many days and hours before the premiere of the gallery, the gallery committee was there to set up for a large crowd expected that night.
Gallery committee member, sophomore Amy Chu, has been working on the gallery for weeks before the opening. “There’s a lot of preparation for galleries, It took us two days just to hang all the artwork,” she said. “There’s actually a lot of planning in terms of grouping together pieces and figuring out how to position the walls.”
With students of all grades being a part of this gallery, many arts students attended Wednesday night’s gallery opening. Junior, Gwen Davidson, had art work in the show, and attended the gallery that night. “This was my first time attending a gallery show and it was great to take the time and look through each piece because I never have time to on the way to class,” She said. “I particularly enjoyed all the different mediums used in the art show; paintings, photos, sculptures, and jewelry made the gallery very interesting.”
Another NCHS artists who had pieces featured in the show that went to the show Wednesday night was sophomore, Brooke Holland. “I liked the feel of this art show a lot because there’s really no set in stone theme,” Brooke said. “It opens a window into the social life of NCHS, and shows how people could differently interpret what the theme, or their heritage, means to them.”
Not only did the art show have many pieces of artwork from students, but the show also had live music performed by sophomore Bhaskar Abhiraman. “Playing in that kind of relaxed environment is really enjoyable for me,” he said. “I played at the high school’s surrealist gallery, so this was like that, it’s a nice providing atmosphere.”
Bhaskar performed many songs and pieces that portrayed the gallery’s theme for the whole duration of the gallery, and. “A lot of what I played was improvisation based on classic American music, some Gershwin, and jazz that really reflects ideas of diverse culture,” Bhaskar said. “I feel it allows me to express myself and put new spins on some great tunes people know and love, reflecting ideas of diverse culture here in America.”
Since the art show had so many different people involved, students attended the gallery, to support friends and see how art looked that night. Sophomore, Christian Broughton went to the gallery to right after his theatre rehearsal, to admire the art from friends and other classmates. “The show had really great food, awesome music, and wonderful art, so I decided to stick around,” he said. “ I wish I had known how cool these shows can be earlier on, if I had, I would have gone to all of them.”
With such a diverse crowd at NCHS that night, many people were able to take away a new perspective on the heritage and background of students. “I was surprised to see people of all ages, from little kids to adults, at the premiere that night,” Amy said. “It’s great to see such a diverse audience at a gallery celebrating diversity, it was very unique and done well.”
