Dan Mead and Sally Eagle will exhibit “Ultimate Antarctica” at the Grubbs Gallery in the Reed Campus Center of The Williston Northampton School from September 6 through October 31, 2011. An artists’ reception will be held on Sunday, September 25, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

These photographs seek to capture the character and scale of the wildlife and landscapes of Antarctica, a place where Mead and Eagle spent twenty-four days in 2009. Although many of the species are threatened or endangered, the show is not a “photographic elegy,” says Jennifer Sahn, editor of Orion Magazine, but “a celebration of the great diversity of life to be found at the underside of the Earth.”

Dan Mead, a former educator turned psychotherapist, and Sally Eagle, entrepreneur and first Executive Director of the Berkshire-Taconic Community Foundation, have traveled extensively and studied with leading photographers such as David Muensch, Jack Dykinga, and John Shaw. Their photograph “Sand Sprinters” won a Highly Commended Award in a BBC/London Natural History Museum annual contest in 2008, and is now part of the Wild Planet exhibit sponsored by the Natural History Museum in London. Mead and Eagle have lived in western Massachusetts for 30 years. With this project, the husband and wife team celebrate their seventh continent visited and photographed together.

The exhibit is free and open to the public. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and selected Saturdays, 8:30 a.m. to noon. For more information, go to www.williston.com/grubbsgallery.

Junior midfielder Bridget Instrum was named U.S. Lacrosse All-American in recognition of her outstanding 2011 season.

Teammate Katie Cavanaugh was named an Academic All-American.

Instrum and Cavanaugh led the Wildcats to their sixth straight Western New England Class B Championship this past season.The most recent championship continues an unprecedented streak of success for the team, which has lost only two games in the last four seasons.
 
“Bridget is one of the hardest working and gifted athletes I’ve ever had the pleasure to coach,” says Jen Fulcher, the team’s head coach. “She’s a natural scorer and instinctive in her play. Most importantly, when the game’s on the line, she wants the ball.”  
 
According to Coach Fulcher, Bridget had a “dominant” year. She led the team in scoring, averaging almost six goals per game. She also led the team in ground balls.  She will be team captain next year and has verbally committed to play lacrosse at The Ohio State University after she graduates from Williston.  
 
Katie Cavanaugh is the second Williston student to be named Academic All-American.  She started every game as a defender and according to Coach Fulcher, “she does whatever it takes to better the entire team.”  Katie is the program’s second academic All-American.  Katie Pettengill ’09, who currently plays at Williams College, was the first. This past May, Cavanaugh was also chosen to be a part of the prestigious U.S. Lacrosse Women’s New England Team at the National Tournament.
 
The girls lacrosse program began at Williston in the 1970s, soon after The Williston Northampton School was formed as a result of the merger of Williston Academy and Northampton School for Girls. This marks the second year in a row that a Williston girls lacrosse player has been named to the All-America team.  SA Fogelman ’10 was named to the team last year; she currently plays lacrosse at the U.S. Naval Academy. 

The Williston Northampton 2010-11 Annual Fund surpassed the goal of $1.45 million dollars, raising a total of $1.47 million from alumni, families, and friends. 

This year, we saw a significant increase in participation from alumni. We’re pleased to report that 21% of all alumni made Annual Fund gifts, a mark we last reached in 2006. Just as impressive, 71% of Williston parents gave to the Parents’ Fund.  Thank you for your part in our terrific results.

The Class of 2011 challenged the faculty to see which group could achieve the highest percentage of Annual Fund participation in what became the race for the Frog of Annual Fund Awesomeness.  It was a close contest, but the faculty (91% participation) edged out the seniors (83% participation).  The faculty was awarded the Frog at the last assembly of the year, but we’ll see if the Class of 2012 can take the trophy back next year.

Every Annual Fund dollar will be used to support faculty salaries, student financial aid, and the upkeep of our beautiful campus.  There is no part of the Williston Northampton experience that the Annual Fund and Parents’ Fund don’t touch.  Thank you for making a gift—and a difference—to the school, its faculty and students.

Natania Hume, who teaches art at The Williston Northampton School, is one of seven artists who were invited to create a piece of work for the exhibit In-Dialogue: Poetry of Place at Gallery A3, 28 Amity Street in Amherst. The show runs July 7-30, with an opening reception on July 7, 5:00-8:00 p.m., and a poetry reading on July 21, 7:30-9:00 p.m. The exhibit includes paintings, photographs, drawings, and sculptures that were either created simultaneously or selected to create thought-provoking combinations.

Painting by Natania Hume

The show is a collaboration between members of the art gallery and guest artists who were encouraged to engage in a visual dialogue inspired by poetry. Natania, who is a potter and a painter, was invited by her father, painter Larry Smith. “We both work with still lifes as a subject for our oil paintings, but our styles are different,” says Natania. “We arranged new still lifes with the other person’s style in mind, but did not try to imitate each other’s style.”           

Tim Trelease, currently an artist-in-residence at Deerfield Academy, curated the show. He told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that the theme Poetry of Place was interpreted differently by each pair of artists, resulting in various forms of dialog. A secondary theme, that of lifelong relationship, arose through the invitation process, since many of the artists chose family members as their collaborators. Showing together are a mother and son, a father and daughter, an adult son and his deceased father, a grandmother and grandchild, and a husband and wife.

The poetry reading on July 21 will feature Gita Trelease reading about India, Sue Katz reading about motherhood, and Michael Mauri reading about current economic events and his work as a forester. Tim says the show promises “many poetic interpretations, visual and verbal, of places near and far.”

Brendan Hellweg ’14 describes the alumnus behind the new “Williston Is” video.

Odds are you’ve seen some of his work: his Slap Chop remix has over thirteen million views on YouTube and has been aired on national television. His Press Hop videos have garnered similar numbers, and he currently works with ESPN to create “this month in sports” style overviews for television. His creations have become pretty much ubiquitous on the online community. Numerous mash-ups and remixes of his videos exist and his creations routinely surpass the one-million-views marker.

Steve Porter talks to film students in the Williston film & photo lab

I hadn’t heard of him or even the Slap-Chop, mainly due to the fact that I live in a cave and only recently have started supplementing my homework time with vast amounts of time on StumbleUpon and YouTube. However, after seeing him present his work during an assembly and film class at Williston, I decided it would be a good idea to delay my assignments for an hour to see what kind of stuff he made these videos from. Some of them are pretty hilarious, and all of them are deviously clever.

Steve Porter is a Williston alumnus (Class of 1997) who started off his career as a touring DJ following his graduation. Quickly recognized for his talent, he was rated the #2 DJ in America by DJ Magazine and was signed by Fade Records. After touring for some time, he created a dance remix of a commercial for a slicing tool called the Slap Chop. It quickly went viral and his remixing career began.

Steve came to Williston to create a video titled “Williston Is,” which is produced in the same style as his other creations. Some of you might have seen students with video cameras walking about campus asking students what, exactly, Williston is all about. These quotes are coupled with a short speech by the head of school and some original beats by Steve. These quotes are then cut up into fragments and mixed together to create a music video that highlights some of the greatest parts of Williston. Watch and enjoy!