As you might have heard on the announcements on March 11th, Visual Arts Team brought home 3 trophies to Franklin High this weekend, and over 5 people are making it to the state tournament!
“Wait a second,” you might be thinking, “Never in my life have I heard of Visual Arts Club.”
And that’s perfectly okay! Visual Arts Club is a team of artists led by Mrs. Bausch that have entered in the annual Visual Arts Classic competition held at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee. Each artist belongs to a sector of creativity – some are tasked with drawing a piece, others paint, others build sculptures out of toothpicks and glue. All of the artists must conform to a theme that changes every year, 2019’s being “simplicity”.
Visual Arts Team has been preparing quietly since January for regionals at Cardinal Stritch. Since then, they’ve been researching artists for the quiz bowl and creating long term pieces to enter into the competition.
Upon arrival at Cardinal Stritch, all artists from Franklin and the other schools are divided by their creative sectors and begin to work on an on-site piece that will also be judged at the competition. Continually, each team also has to be able to work together to answer questions about artists and think critically in the form of a skit. This year’s prompt was “create a promo for a well-known sitcom that features artists”.
Visual Arts Team came in second for the quiz bowl (a major improvement from previous years). Held in the school’s auditorium, they answered several questions about artists like Georges Seurat and Yasujiro Ozu, default-dancing every single time they got a question right, and also answering that Grandma Moses’ real name is “G-Ma Mo Mo” rather than Anna Mary Robertson Moses (which, unfortunately, did not earn them the point).
They also came in second for critical thinking, for a gripping skit about Pokemon. Ash Matisse from Pallet Town travels out into the exciting world of Pokemon, fighting his first challenger Yasujiro Ozu with his three new Pokemon Georges Seurat (Special: Pointillism), Shoji Hamada (Special: Pottery Shards) and Mythical Pokemon Harriet Power (Special: Applique). Unfortunately, they lost to a slightly-less-gripping skit, a parody of Grey’s Anatomy.
And lastly, Franklin brought home 3rd overall for most wins within the team, with several people on the team due to go to Madison for state in April, for all kinds of media – from drawing to video production. Please continue to cheer them on as they continue to compete!
Congratulations Visual Arts! Keep on making Franklin Proud!