DGN Artists Sweep the Elmhurst Art Museum Awards

Three North High visual artists were recently honored by the Elmhurst Art Museum as having the most outstanding portfolios of this year's participants.  This is the third annual portfolio exhibition, and it is open to all high school seniors in DuPage County.

EAM works directly with local high school art teachers who select student art portfolios to be sent to the Museum for judging.  Each submitted portfolio consists of six works created in the same medium.  Up to twenty-five portfolios are selected for the exhibition.  The Museum hosts several educational programs for students including Portfolio 101 and Careers in the Arts Day. 

The following students/schools were represented in this year's exhibition:

William Blake, Hinsdale Central High School
Alison Chatten, Wheaton North High School
Stephen Davalos, Wheaton North High School
Laura Dunne, York Community High School Katie Earl, Downers Grove North High School
Kerry Furrh, Wheaton North High School
Hillary Galvin, Hinsdale Central High School David Huettner, Downers Grove South High School
Nicole Irwin, Downers Grove North High School
David Martini, Downers Grove North High School
Samantha Merrell, Wheaton North High School Padraic O’Connor, Downers Grove North High School
Alex Wieder, Hinsdale South High School
Cloe Zikmund, Glenbard North High School

North High student Padraic O'Connor won "Best In Show", and two "Honorable Mention" awards were given - also to North High students: Katie Earl and Nicole Irwin.

Information about the exhibit may be found at the Elmhurst Art Museum website:  http://www.elmhurstartmuseum.org

Elmhurst Art Museum
150 Cottage Hill Ave.
Elmhurst, Illinois 60126
630.834.0202

Two DGN Artists Win National Silver Medal

Three students from Community High School District 99, including two from Downers Grove North High School have received a prestigious national award for their outstanding artwork through The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the 87 year-old national program that recognizes outstanding creative teenagers and offers scholarship opportunities for graduating high school seniors. This year’s Award recipients from Downers Grove North High School were Nicole Irwin and Padraic O'connor. Both were awarded a Silver medal for their art portfolios.  Padraic's concentration was Digital Art and Nicole's was in Jewelry and Metalwork.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the national nonprofit organization that presents The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, will honor these students in early June, at a gala celebration at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Selected award recipients and high school seniors recognized with top honors for portfolios will have their art/writing exhibited in Manhattan at the World Monuments Fund Gallery.

Art Students Honored Through Woodridge/D99 Partnership

District 99 / Woodridge Art Show

Faculty members from DGN and DGS collaborated to prepare and present the 2010 District 99/Woodridge Public Library Art Show. The show opens on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 6:00 PM with a short awards ceremony at 7:00 PM. Winners in multiple media categories as well as an overall "Best in Show" will be announced for each campus. The Best in Show piece from both schools will be sent to the national Creative Self Expression Show, sponosored locally by Suszyn Mills and the Great Frame Up store in Woodridge. Special thanks also to Susan McNeil-Marshall and the Woodridge Public Library staff for being such wonderful hosts for our student artists.

'Sharing Is Caring' Concert

Congratulations to the members of the DGN Symphonic Band Percussion
Ensemble, the DGN Jazz Lab Band, and the DGN Jazz Ensemble for their
outstanding performances at the 2010 North High 'Sharing Is Caring'
Concert.

Guest artist Charley Harrison (UCLA) performed six selections through
the course of the evening, and the Jazz Ensemble's performance of the
1924 Rhapsody In Blue by George Gershwin received an immediate and
lengthy standing ovation by all in attendance.

Congratulations to all students who performed!

Artist In Residence - DGN Welcomes Charley Harrison from UCLA

DGN Musicians Study Gershwin / Recreate History

The DGN Jazz Ensemble will present, as a part of the April 13th 'Sharing is Caring' Concert at North High, a recreation of the original 1924 performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue.

A little known historical fact about Gershwin's "Rhapsody" - even among professional musicians - is that the piece was originally written for jazz band.  The work, premiered by Paul Whiteman's Jazz Orchestra in New York City in 1924, employs standard jazz band instrumentation, and adds violins, French horns, oboe, banjo, tuba, and orchestral percussion.

"Every effort has been made to recreate the sound of the original performance," said music teacher Brayer Teague.  "We rented reproductions of the original Gershwin manuscripts from the holding library in New York and have rehearsed from them so that our students could more fully appreciate Gershwin's compositional process in creating this master-work."

Junior Marie Kirkegaard will perform the solo piano part originally performed by Gershwin himself.

The concert begins at 7:00 PM in the Clarence Johnson Auditorium.  Admission is free, and the concert is open to the public.