The Foxborough Art Department is committed to providing students with an exceptional visual arts education by encouraging the development of skills both in and out of the classroom. It is our common belief that the community should be integrated into the academic curriculum. By providing structured time for students to work on community service projects and designating the month of May for school
based art shows, artistic work is being connected to social context. It is this constant evaluation of the artist's role in the community that brought three art teachers with their students to a street painting festival last September. The twelve students (spanning grades 9-12) caravanned to the festival, wearing tie-died shirts made after school during an Arts and Culture Club meeting. Surrounded by students from other districts and professional artists from all over New England, the students joined forces tackling two 8'x8' cement squares. The Saturday afternoon spent covered in pastel chalk and watching our students truly coming together as a team to collaborate on a piece of art is something we teachers will never forget. They were engaged in something they loved and simultaneously interacting and learning from each other. Patrons and parents would stop by and compliment their progress, taking the concepts we had learned from classroom critiques to a whole new level. Students would take breaks to check out the work of other artists and come back excited about the artwork they were seeing. Even though we didn't place when the day came to an end, students were in agreement that returning next fall was a must. It was this one event that sparked the proposal for the first annual Foxborough Street Painting Festival. It is our hope that this event will bring together Foxborough and neighboring community artists of all ages in one space, that it will be a true celebration of creativity and imagination.
