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Date: 4/25/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — This spring, the West Springfield Arts Council is funding its first Local Cultural Project, supporting arts and cultural events at each of West Springfield’s public schools. Each school was granted $450 to add to their offerings in culture, arts and music.
The Arts Council’s wider mission is to promote the arts, humanities and interpretive sciences throughout the community. Member Patricia Murphy said, “Toward the end of 2022, we were notified by the Mass. Cultural Council that we would be allotted money to engage in a local cultural event. We threw out a number of ideas and one we most felt comfortable with and would be able to do fairly well was provide the money to each of the public schools in West Springfield to assist them and support them in the cultural events and arts events that they might wish to have over the school year.”
Murphy was asked to coordinate the project and met with interim Superintendent Vito Perrone in the fall to have a discussion, and he passed that information along to the principals of each school. In January 2023, when the money was issued from the state to the town, Murphy began working with each of the schools to look at what they might be interested in.
The council was able to contribute toward new materials for West Springfield Middle School’s Makerspace art projects, in the school library.
On March 16, West Springfield High School hosted the latest edition of its Heritage and History Fair, an annual festival of the many cultures found in their student body and the town. Families bring traditional food dishes from their native cultures and serve them to those in attendance. A wide variety of food from countries from almost every continent and student presentations were displayed throughout the cafeteria, covering various aspects of who they are and their heritage.
History department Chair Stan Svec created the fair with the help of Kelli Dimmitroglu of the sheltered English immersion and English as a second language department with the buy-in of both of their departments 12 years ago as a way to introduce American-born West Side students to their new neighbors from all over the world. As an introduction between various community groups the night has been a resounding success over the fair’s run.
“This is the first real fair we have done since the COVID emergency, and it was excellent,” said Svec. “Great community participation, great food, dance and cultural costumes and just a lot of fun. The Arts Council’s contribution was greatly appreciated and was used to support the event with plates, tableware and other necessities. I want to thank them for it and extend an invitation to next year’s fair. ‘The more, the merrier’ is truly the mantra of that great night.”
Principal Pat Danby recalled his favorite presentation this year was from a student that recently came to them from Ukraine who told them the story of her journey and about the woman that made it possible. They were both in attendance at the high school that night.
“The event was a great success,” he said. “Everyone appeared to have a great time and I left with a very full belly. We had hundreds of people come out to participate. We are very appreciative of the Arts Council for providing funding for this event and highlighting this rich and wonderful event.”
The high school will celebrate its 23rd Fine Arts Festival 6-8 p.m. Thursday, May 11, with art works by more than 500 students in grades 9-12. This will be followed by the Pops Concert at 7 p.m. on May 12. All are welcome to both events.
The town’s elementary schools — Coburn, Fausey, Memorial, Mittineague and Tatham — and John Ashley Kindergarten and Cowing Alternative School also benefited from Arts Council grants. Some events have already taken place in April, while others are scheduled for May and early June.
Murphy told Reminder Publishing she is a teacher by trade and is always enthusiastic about what schools can offer students at any level in terms of enhancing their learning process.
“Anything to do with culture and the arts is critical to having a full educational experience,” said Murphy. “I think what’s most fulfilling for me is to see how involved and committed each school is to provide a broad cultural experience to all the students in their schools.”
She went on to say, “There are 53 languages spoken in West Springfield. We are a very culturally diverse community, and the schools recognize that. They’re providing services, welcoming new students to the community annually and embracing every single culture that is coming in the community.”