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Date: 6/23/2022
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Students at Coburn School in West Springfield recently participated in an art exhibition at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site.
The exhibition was titled “A Global Connection” and exhibited panels created with the involvement of 121 students from six Massachusetts schools.
“Students worked with the premise that as a research and development facility, not only for military arms, but for the techniques required to manufacture them, Springfield Armory was part of a global network. Ideas from other countries were investigated and modified in armory manufacturing techniques and designs, not just for firearms, but for many everyday items as well,” according to a press release from the National Park Service.
Nicole Vellieux’s fifth grade classes at Coburn chose to investigate the concept of an assembly line, and created an artwork titled “Assembly Line: The Heart of America.”
“I ran the class as a ‘factory,’ where students were given tasks such as cutting, sorting, gluing, drawing — to create hearts that represent the people that work so hard to get us the goods we all need,” said Veilleux, the school’s art teacher
“It was about working together,” said fifth grader Jonathan Soto.
The exhibition, which closed June 13, was sponsored by the International Fiber Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that develops community programs in art and civic engagement, linking learning and creativity to science, math, engineering and the humanities.
The armory, the primary arsenal of the American Revolutionary War and a major manufacturer of firearms until the 1960s, also played important roles in Shays’ Rebellion and the Civil War. It is now open to the public as a unit of the National Park Service.