Williston Northampton’s AP Microeconomics class will host Steven R. Cunningham, the director of research and education at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) on Friday, May 4.
Spotlight On The Gardening Club
Behind the middle school buildings, on a small plot of land, two students and their advisor were starting off activities period by smelling a large box of old banana peels, oranges, and apple cores.
“Phew!” said Joey Newlin ’12 as he peered into a large green barrel.
“Anarobic decomposition smells like this. It’s like a sewer smell,” said Jane Lucia, the gardening club’s faculty advisor. “Turning actually mixes it, aerates it, and keeps that stench away.”
It was spring on The Williston Northampton School campus and the members of the gardening club were out to inspect their food garden, give the mulch a good turn, and transfer seedlings from the gutters where they had sprouted to the cold frame, where they’d grow into carrots, beets, and a cold weather lettuce called mache.
The club, which started in fall 2007, has a small, but dedicated, membership that gathers each year to experiment with growing and composting techniques, as well as encourage community involvement in gardening.
Hidden/Private Part II Exhibited at Grubbs Gallery
As a recent guest curator at Easthampton City Arts, Williston Northampton art teacher Marcia Reed designed an exhibition, which highlighted the private side of artists.
“I do work that I never show to anyone, ever, and I have a lot of it,” said Reed. “I exhibit this, that, and the other thing, but I never show this private side, this hidden side.”
It’s “Dance or Die” for the cast of “Fiddler on the Roof”
“It was ‘Dance or die,’” said a member of the cast as Emily Ditkovski, the musical’s director, introduced the cast to the political and social turmoil of turn of the century Tsarist Russia.
Certainly true in the realm of musicals, this phrase became the mantra for the cast and crew of this year’s musical, “Fiddler on the Roof.” Whenever someone is having trouble they say, “dance or die” to each other and the situation, whatever it may be, is ameliorated.
“Every cast is special, every cast is unique, but this one has so much energy,” says Ditkovski of the 39 students involved in the play this spring. “There are so many beginners this year, but they’re all able to channel the characters perfectly.”
Portrait Lessons with Susan Falzone
Susan Falzone led a procession of Williston Northampton photography students into the lower floor of the Reed Campus Center. She picked the dimmest corner she could find to set up the equipment: a softbox flash and a white and gold reflector.
“Lift it up, down, use the fill, don’t use the fill,” Falzone said, adjusting the reflector and the light. “Just experiment a little bit.”
Falzone, a documentary and portrait photographer based in New York City, was on campus for Williston Northampton’s ongoing Photographers’ Lecture Series and for some one-on-one time with students.