Spring into the Arts

Kicking off this week by celebrating our Valpo Film Festival winners! Students K-12 submitted "One Minute to Win It" entries and this past Saturday we showcased the winning films!

In the Adventure Film category, here were our top 3 winners:

Dixon by Jonathan Williams
https://youtu.be/dIWqvHNh-8A

Shirt by Claire Pals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTh3kSvEOME

Tag by Connor O'Dell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wOfqMidGLc&feature=youtu.be

Today was a monumental finale of the “Spring into the 2022 Festival”

The Film Fest showcased our filmaker winner’s’ and their “One Minute to Film It” entries. Incredible talents on display! We will be featuring them all this week!

Then the unVALEing took place as a final closing to this year’s creative exhibit! The work of over 4,000 students on permanent display for our community to enjoy!

“The heART of VALPO” beats strong when the ARTS are the pulse!!!

Stop into City Hall to view this massive masterpiece in person! Congratulations to all the artists who were involved! This was a group WIN!!!!!

Thank you Valparaiso Now, Valparaiso Creative Council, Urschel Laboratories, Inc. and Valparaiso Community Schools for making this festival and collaborative mural possible.

Before the official “unVALEing” takes place tomorrow, I wanted to share a small story of how we arrived here at this opportunity for students. 🙌🏼

The mural was a vision back in 2019 as a thank you to the city for 5 years of supporting Spring into the .

As with all visions I wondered, “how can we make this happen???? A mural where over 4,000 students across all schools participate has never happened!!!”

A generous donor (Urschel Laboratories) loved the idea of having every school in Valpo be a part of a collaborative piece, so voila! It was funded! 🥳

But then we faced some “small” hurdles: Shutdown. Pandemic. #2020 😳
The muralist went out of business. 😳
Event restrictions for two years. 😳

All the while, this vision of a photo collage in rainbow order kept resurfacing in my mind.

After sharing the idea to some other muralists, I was repeatedly told, “That’s impossible!” “It’s too much for kids to do.” “Kids can only do really easy.”

Easy is not our style. We love stretching the creative abilities of learners to their FULL POTENTIAL. So I knew it needed a full push to make it happen.

As each photo locked into place during the layout stage and every single VCS school fit into the collage, it was clear… we just might have been crazy to believe in this one. 🤣

Yet, here we are less than two months after panels were delivered to art teachers. THE WORK IS DONE! 🙌🏼

Join us at City Hall 11-1 tomorrow to witness it’s unveiling. Seats are limited so arrive early!

This is our grand finale, paired up with our student film festival, and it’s been soooooo worth the wait!!!! 😍

Thank you to the Valparaiso Community Schools art team for making this possible. It’s beyond words!

Thank you to Valparaiso Creative Council and Valparaiso Now for your partnerships.

Here we goooooooooo!

I can’t even begin to describe how epic today was as we came together as a community in the THOUSANDS to celebrate student art!!!!

Wow wow WOW.

Since 2016 we’ve built up this kick-off as a bridge between our students, downtown, and incredible venues and today I really felt the greatest joy seeing just how much attendees valued this seed of intention!!! This event has certainly BLOOMED!!!

Glorious!!!! 🤩

Thank you to our VCS art teams specifically the elementary ladies: Gretchen Scott, Kim Garbison, Audrey Rucklos, Chelsea Grzelak, Natalie Thorgren!

Thank you to our venues: Porter County Public Library System, Valparaiso, Indiana (City Hall), Valparaiso First Insurance, POCO Government Building, 1st Source Bank, Valpo Parks, Blackbird Cafe, Art Z & Co.

And!!! Thank you to Urschel Laboratories, Valparaiso Community Schools, and Valparaiso Creative Council for financial partnership and immense support!!! 🙌🏼

Today was everything. Thank you for all who showed up to celebrate student talent with us. Please post your pics below! Thank you Flint Lake PTO for the photography!

Spring into the RETURNS after a 2 year 'creative pause'! This is the month-long celebration of student talent across K-12 is offered from Valparaiso Community Schools in participating downtown locations.

Here are two dates you need to know:

*April 23rd
“The -chitecture WALK"
11a - 1p Urschel Pavilion

^^^ Upwards of 1,000 student pieces will be showcased at 8 downtown locations this year! Thank you for opening your doors, Porter County Public Library System, Valparaiso Now, Valparaiso First Insurance, 1st Source Bank, Valpo Parks, Blackbird Cafe, Art Z & Co.

*May 21st
“VALPO Film Festiv@l" +
“Mural unVALEing"
11a - 1p City Hall

^^^ The top 3 Film Festival winners will be announced with prizes awarded to each "One Minute to Film It" creator! (Deadline for submissions is May 6th at midnight).

Then! We will have the first ever "unVALEing" of our district mural, a 16 panel collaboration between all VCS schools!!!! This monumental 10' x 20' mural will be permanently displayed at City Hall as a gift for their years of support with our festival!

More to be shared soon, but be sure to check us out at www.springintothearts.com for more info!

A special thanks to the gracious support from John Anderson Foundation and Urschel Laboratories making this festival possible!!!

Thank you to Valparaiso Creative Council for working in partnership with us this year!

Just a glimpse of all that went down at The Art-chitecture Walk today.

“Sometimes it snows in April” but over 300 people came out to see their child’s artwork and print their own shirt!!! In. The. SNOW.

Thank you for that dedication and patient waiting as students learned how to screen print firsthand. 🙌🏼

Amazing turnout and outcome! If you took pictures with your little artist, please include in your post!

Student exhibits will remain on display until May 18th at the following locations:

K + 1st: Valparaiso Public Library
2nd + 3rd: Porter County Administrative
4th + 5th: Urschel Pavilion
6th-8th: Roots Organic Juice Café
9th-12th: Blackbird Cafe

Thank you to our supporters who made this happen this year, John Anderson Foundation, The Redevelopment Commission, Urschel Laboratories, Stu and Megan Summers, The City of Valparaiso, and Valpo Parks.

Please mark your calendars for our last two events!

Saturday May 4th, The VALPO Film Fest
Saturday, May 18th, Where Did Van Gogh

Just a friendly reminder that all artists work will be unveiled tomorrow from 11:00-2:00 at William E. Urschel Pavilion

Stop in.
Grab an event map.
Venture to our participating venues.
Bring maps back for our prize giveaway at 1:30. 🙌🏼

And celebrate our young CREATORS!

We will also give artists their complimentary t-shirt for being selected!

Rain, SNOW, or shine it’s ART-chitecture Walk time!

Announcing our official Spring into the 2019 Festival!

Our website is updated with the list of events for this year, be sure to check it out at www.springintothearts.com

Students wishing to submit "One Minute to Film It" entries this year must upload films Saturday, April 13th by midnight through our website.

As an addition to our Film Festival, we've created a collaborative category "May the 4th Be With YOU" as a Star Wars theme for students, families, staff, and local artists to make something out of this world!

More announcements coming soon!

Today was an amazing day of performances, despite the chilly forecast!

Flint Lake Choir
Indiana Ballet Theatre
VHS orchestra

They all did such an amazing job and it was lovely to have dance as a featured performance this year!

Where Did Van Gogh is such a wonderful opportunity for young performers to have a platform AND for attendees to explore our downtown in an exciting way.

Thank you for the support this year! Performance videos are in the comments!

Today is our last event “Where Did Van Gogh”! We have student performances starting at Urschel Pavilion at 1:00 pm!!!

Then, today is the LAST day to conduct our scavenger hunt! The first clue is shown here with a list of possible locations on the route! You can simply read it here and start or you can pick up a trifold downtown at the locations listed.

All attendees must complete the route by 3:30 today and meet back at Urschel to be present to win any prizes.

Comment all your Hashtag Challenges here! The more pics you post, the more chances you have to win our special Van Gogh prize!

The@ter Outreach was absolutely AMAZING tonight! Flint Lake 2nd graders KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE OPERA HOUSE!!!!

Videos will be in the comments. Tooooo adorable for words!