Memorial High School explores 'Home' at Fine Arts Night

EAU CLAIRE — For Memorial High School, Wednesday’s Fine Arts Night brought back an annual tradition that the school had not celebrated since the pandemic.

And with a chance to feature a variety of cross-disciplinary events and hard work over the past year, students and teachers were certainly excited to bring it back.

“We finally brought it back this year and we’re ramping up the participation,” said Matt Palm, art teacher at Memorial.

Palm has been involved with the night since it started approximately six years before 2020, becoming an umbrella for different disciplines. He said continual support from teachers across subjects like art, music, dance, literature and more is what has blossomed it into what it is now.

“The coolest thing about this is that the artists — not just the arts — but the kids that don’t necessarily always get a look from the public like those in athletics often do get the light shining on them for their success,” he said.

“Since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to be in an art career. So, school bringing it into everyday life and making it a big thing and not something they hide is really big,” said Huxley Hogan, a sophomore at Memorial.

One feature of their Fine Arts Night which drove many of the projects and presentations is an overall theme for which the students use to inspire their work. This year’s theme centered around “Home.”

Through that theme, students interested in doing something for their Fine Arts Night created a number of projects which display their interpretations and thoughts towards that idea.

In one classroom there was a collection of bird houses, while students in a history class created an interactive map of Eau Claire which highlighted home-related areas.

“And it is not just art classes, it is school wide. We’ve had English classes come up with stories that go to our pottery teacher who then creates pottery pieces based on those stories,” said Charlie Christensen, a freshman at Memorial.

On top of that, students in the school’s mural club also worked on a live mural Wednesday night which will be on display in the hallway.

Members of the Eco Warriors Club and Theatre students put on an interactive display creating pollinator seed balls and bee hotels for solitary, native bees.

For students in special education, their classroom was decorated from floor to ceiling with glow in the dark artwork, as students from North High School helped contribute.

“It has been really fun to make the art together… and now it is all together in one space,” said Nicole Burt, North High School art teacher. “It is my first Fine Arts Night… There was anticipation and now that it’s all here it is really exciting. I am also really proud of all the students coming together and turning out the work.”

And for members of the Old Abe Orchestra and Concert Orchestra, a performance of commissioned work from Eau Claire alumni allowed them to perform songs which explored that project theme of home. Hunter Hanson, a New York-based composer and Memorial alum, wrote two orchestral pieces, “Wood” and “Home is,” that had their world debut in the school auditorium.

Alongside Hanson, Kimberly Osberg, a Portland-based composer and North High School alumna, also wrote “Runaway” and “Homeward Bound,” which were debuted for attendees at Wednesday night’s event.

“Because both of us were local students here, she thought it would be really fun to write pieces on the theme of ‘home’ and find ways to integrate that into the music that we had,” said Osberg. “As we’re talking, we came up with the idea to send little questionnaires to the students and have them answer questions like, ‘What does home sound like? What does home smell like? What does home mean to you? We took those student responses and developed our pieces around what the students told us.”

It’s meaningful. Our town of Eau Claire is so music-centered… we all share this excitement about music and being home and being here and what does it mean to be in Eau Claire,” said Soma Pierce-Smit, orchestra director at Memorial.

“This is one of the first times since the pandemic that I have actually gotten to come and do things in person. I think that connection is really special and has been really exciting,” said Osberg.

And with the night coming to a close, Christensen reflected on what a night like this means.

“What Fine Arts Night means to me specifically and why I like the idea of it so much, is that it brings the entire school together instead of just having one subject. Although it is very art-based, it includes all the classes.”