By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The Hays Arts Council is preparing for a busy spring season with events planned for area school children and the community.
Among those events is the annual Creative Writing Contest, currently underway.
“That's actually off in the hands of our judges now,” said Hays Arts Council Executive Director Brenda Meder. “And bless their hearts that a variety of staff members from the Fort Hays English department, faculty and staff there take those entries and judge them.”
The award ceremony is set for April 30.
As students await the results of that contest, others are prepping for Famous Figures, a chance for Ellis County Fifth graders to learn about and perform as a positive role model from history for the 27th year.
The contest is limited to two fifth-grade students per classroom and will conclude with a county-wide competition from 8:20 to 11:45 a.m. May 5 in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Art Center on the Fort Hays State University campus. Competitor names and their chosen characters are due to the Arts Council by April 28.
And later this week, area fourth and fifth graders will have the opportunity to see live productions from the Wichita Children’s Theater on March 24.
“In the morning, we will be having … I think we'll have about 175 students in Beach/Schmidt from fourth and fifth grades with their production of Yankee Doodle, which is a really wonderful homage to Americana history and significant movers and shakers.”
Students from Hays, Ellis, Victoria, Plainville and Russell will be in attendance.
“And in the afternoon, we've got The Three Little Kittens for kindergarten and first graders,” Meder said.
Another performance will be hosted that at 7 p.m., again in Beach/Schmidt.
“It's highly entertaining, very audience participatory engagement,” Meder said. “So the kids absolutely love it. And there's a lot of little kids that aren't in those grades we touch, and we want them to come back with their families or an older grade where this is still wonderfully suitable, but they're not part of the mix.
“There will be no fee for that. We do pay for these companies, so there's a fee with that, but we will be offering this as a gift to the community because of the sponsorship and the support that we've gotten.”
Following the performance, she said a cast meet-and-greet is scheduled in the lobby.
While the children’s events approach, work in the gallery for their latest exhibition is also underway, a Master of Fine Arts Thesis exhibition from Cassie Rebman.
“It's going to be a very unique a different kind of big sculptural thesis exhibition,” Meder said. "Putting together some of what you would think of its disjointed materials and the way they flow from one item to the next. So I think that's going to be very cool.”
The exhibition is scheduled to open with a reception from 6:30 to 9 p.m. March 31.
“And what's cool about that evening is we're also hosting a professional development exhibition, again for Fort Hays students in our annex,” Meder said. “While we're talking about great things across the community, down in the Moss Thorns Gallery is the annual student honors exhibition. And so all three of those shows celebrating the talent and creativity and instruction and everything out of Fort Hays State University will be on full display.”
Moving through the season, the Art Center will also work to prepare for the Spring Art Walk, set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 29. Throughout the day, participating locations will display various art forms in lobbies and storefronts as hundreds of area residents explore exhibitions throughout downtown and beyond.
While it might be more than a month away, Meder said participating artists and businesses are connecting now.
“We take all comers, if it is your original creations, we take all comers,” Meder said. “That's what we want, is to celebrate individual creativity. And so, all you have to do is hook up with any place across our wonderful community.”
In order to be included in the printed event announcement, she said, participants have until April 14.
“Plenty of time to make this happen,” Meder said.