Middle Art Students Help School Win $10,000 Prize

COURT HOUSE – Six Middle Township High School students won its first art trophy when their designs of Vans’ “Off the Wall” brand shoes were selected as finalists, earning the school $10,000. 
Under the guidance of art teacher Karen Biederman, the students designed four shoes reflecting the beach, sand, and surf that abound across the region.
She said that Vans, which manufactures shoes for the surfing and skateboard crowd, “is the shoe of choice for probably 75 percent of the high school population.
“I’m so proud of the students,” Biederman said. “Their spirit was so generous and good throughout the competition. They were so kind and supportive of each other.”
The students, Gia Conte, Riley Derose, Isabella DiPasquale, Hailey Urbaczeski, Rachel Williams, and Julia Mallet, “spent countless hours” coming up with drawings that eventually were painted on the shoes.
In addition, pieces such as fishing rods, a surfboard, and dunes were made from clay by the students.
While this is the second time Middle Township High School art students had entered the contest, this year was the ninth annual Vans Custom Culture Competition.
Through a new format Vans used to focus on schools that have had their arts education funding cut; 500 eligible schools were chosen out of 2,000 which registered to compete.
The 500 schools which qualified each designed two pairs of Vans, one to embody Vans’ “Off The Wall” brand and one to embody the town’s “Local Flavor.”
Along with these designs, the high schools submitted an Impact Document explaining how the school and community would be impacted by the winning prize.
Based on criteria of creativity, relevance, and executions, the Vans team selected the top 50 that went on to public voting. This round of public voting helped select the five finalists, from which Vans selected the winner.
Biederman explained that this year’s art students were given a choice of three projects as part of a class assignment. These six students selected the Vans’ competition.
“One of the shoes reflecting ‘Local Flavor’ shows the Ferris wheel, tram, and Curley fries of the boardwalk,” Biederman said explaining some of the designs.
“They included beach tags from many of the beaches. The sunbathers are actually two of the students lying on the beach. We included surf fishing rather than commercial fishing because that’s what’s done in Middle Township.
“While Gia did about 90 percent of the painting, Bella drew on the shoes,” she noted. “Everyone pitched in with some aspect.
“People usually are quick to support sports, but the arts are different,” she noted. “It touches the soul and the spirit.”
As part of the application, Biederman had to submit answers to six questions explaining everything from school and district demographics to stories about how the arts have been a catalyst for parent and community involvement to showing how arts have impacted student learning.
“The current status of student’s access to visual arts is fair at best,” Biederman stated in her application. 
When she started teaching there in 2007, there were two art teachers, but a cut in state funding “riffed” (reduction in force) the other art teacher. 
“I teach six art classes with 24 students in almost every class,” she noted. “I cannot tell you how often I hear students tell me that they signed up for art but they could not get it in their schedule. 
“When you look at N.J. State Performance Report, we have a 19 percent enrollment in visual arts compared to a 33 percent state average. Other areas in the arts, music, and drama meet or exceed the state level; we need art to be enhanced for our students to be able to compete in the competitive visual world we live in today.”
Art is part of the visual and performing arts requirements for high school graduation. The other courses that are included with that requirement include music, theater, and dance.
“In my experience, the students who have been successful in art have also been very successful academically,” Biederman said. “Generally, my most driven artists are often students who are in the top of their class academically. Their hard work, drive to and dedication to their craft carries through to all aspects of their life. 
“Arts impact students’ learning by allowing them to utilize unique problem-solving ideas, focus on their own ingenuity, and hone their critical thinking skills; attributes, you don’t always gain in other subjects,” she added. “Many of my students spend their lunches and all of their free time in the art room. They feel relaxed here, happy and safe.
“Some have told me it takes the stress off their day when they spend time here in my room and other students have expressed that they look forward to coming to art as a break from the rest of their stressful days,” she said.
As part of the public voting that took place during the competition, Biederman said they solicited help from “parents, friends, and families” of the schools’ children.
“I also spoke with one of the teachers at Lower Cape May (Regional High School) which wasn’t selected in the competition but also got her students to support the voting,” she said.
“They told me that the way we would be notified if we won was by receiving a check, which we just got,” she said. “It was very exciting to not only receive the check, but each of the winning students received an awesome customized art box, and we received a hand-written note, which you don’t receive very often these days. We also got our first art trophy.
“I want to get the students’ input into how we can best use the money in the program,” the art teacher said, listing a variety of tools, equipment, and other needs. “It’s great that five of the winners will be here next year so they’ll get a chance to use whatever we buy.”
Since its inception, Vans Custom Culture has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to support art education in schools across the nation, empowering creativity through art and design.
Vans continues to be a proponent and voice to encourage youth to creatively express themselves.
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.