Butler Students show off creative talents at 21st annual FAB showcase
Kara Sellers was one of the 1,100 students from the Butler Area School District who displayed their art work at the 21st Fine Arts & Beyond showcase held at the Butler Intermediate High School on Saturday, April 5.
As thousands of parents roamed the halls, marveling at the work of the students from the district, Kara gently applied a coat of paint to her fantastical clay sculpture.
The Butler High School senior has spent three months working on her creation, a demon-like deity with a single eye and tentacle-like arms.
Kara said she likes using clay because it’s easy to mold, which allows her imagination to take control of the shaping of her creatures. Her art, she said, is a way for her to truly express herself.
“Art is inspiring,” Kara said “It creates imagination, freedom and expression beyond all comprehensive. It takes what you have in your mind, all the things you can’t express with words, and you can put it in something you can hold, touch and see.”
Students, parents, faculty and alumni filled the Butler Intermediate High School to attend the 21st Fine Arts & Beyond Showcase. The event is a communitywide showcase of artistic work and musical talent of Butler Area School District students and professional community artists.
Along with admiring the young artists’ work, spectators were also able to participate in several fundraising activities, including face painting, balloon animals and raffles to raise funds for the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation.
Carrie Morgan-Davis, president of the foundation, said the nonprofit works in conjunction with the district to provide scholarships and creative teaching grants for Butler schools.
“We work a lot with different people in the community and different parts of the school district to help raise money,” Morgan-Davis said. “The FAB showcase allows us to focus on the art and music department as well as have teachers demonstrate the things that they had written grants for.”
Students from 1st to12th grade were able to display or perform their artistic talents, whether it was singing, playing an instrument, photography or sculpting.
“This event is really to showcase the students work,” Morgan-Davis said. “But we also have visiting artists, a lot of which graduated from Butler, that are demonstrating their art as well.”
Among the Butler Alumni whose work was on display at the showcase was Katie Sequete, a special effects and makeup artist, who was putting the finishing touches on a reptile-like demon mask.
Sequete said it was one of her former Butler teachers who inspired her to get into makeup as a career.
“Special event makeup was a little boring for me,” Sequete said. “So I took on the niche of special effects and innovative fabrications and learned how to make these masks.”
Students Mylee Toner, 17, Danielle Romanucci, 17, and Sam Sadler, 16, displayed their sculpting skills as clay sculptors.
Led by Butler resident and ceramics artist Katie Badac, the three students exhibited how to make ceramic creations which, according to the students, can be done by anyone.
“It’s really calming,” Toner said. “And I think ceramics can teach you a lot of skills like patience and creativity. There’s not really any rules you have to follow.”
Kaitlyn Dick, 14, had multiple submissions in the showcase, including artwork in drawing and photography. The Butler high should student said she wants to pursue a career as an artist after she graduates and has loaded up on electives to prepare her for the future.
“Art is definitely a way that people can express themselves,” she said. “I think it’s such an outlet to show creativity and then have an end product to show all the progress.”
