by Abby Whelan’14, Arts and Entertainment Staff Writer  

Newark Academy is known for fostering the artistic side in its students from day one.  Whether it is to fulfill the high school’s art requirement or it is just through a personal interest, every student at Newark Academy has taken an art class at some point. However how does this emphasis on art translate into a continued pursuit of a passion? This month’s alumni art show displays the works of four different artists who took their experiences in Newark Academy art classes and ran with them. The gallery features the work of Emily Bluck’08, Emily LiMandri’05, Eric Berlin’92, and Mike Mszanski’08, each one so inspired from their artistic beginnings  at the Academy that they continued to create art even after graduation.

This month, the IB art classes had the incredible opportunity to chat with three of the four alumni artists, discussing how IB Art  motivated them to pursue art beyond high school.

Bluck personally came back to Newark Academy, in order to talk to current IB students about her experience with the arts program. At Newark Academy, her biggest projects were predominantly large-scale digital illustrations. However, once she graduated and went on to study at Scripps College, she began to branch out by using more mediums such as graphite powder. She also notes that her work grew more personal, specifically citing the famous doorway currently in the art gallery, called the “Open Door Policy.” While Bluck encouraged each student to take away their own individual message from the piece, she did also speak a little bit about her message. As an Asian American, who is especially passionate about the subject of immigration in the United States, Bluck has a very personal connection to the piece. The footprints leading up to the door represent the attraction to the American Dream, while those leading away represent the barriers and challenges many people have when trying to accomplish it. Bluck’s other pieces in the gallery include the charcoal drawings of grenades, a wedding ring, asian men and asian eyes.

The IB Visual Arts students were also given the opportunity to video chat with two of the other alumni artists, Li Mandri and Berlin. While at Newark Academy, Li Mandri mostly painted. After graduating, she attended John Hopkins University. After her time at Newark Academy, she learned how to do silk screening, which led her to pursue a career designing clothing. Some pieces in the gallery have already been sold to clothing companies for production.

On the other hand, Berlin’s artistic career took him a very different route. Upon graduation, he attended Harvard University. He decided that art at Newark Academy had helped him learn about himself and his relationships with others that he pursued art in other forms, such as comedy and improvisation, although his visual art in the gallery plays with different shapes and movement.

The fourth artist, Mike Mszanski, is represented in the gallery by a set of impressive photographs. Ms. Brodie, head of the Arts Department, commented on Mszanski’s pieces in the show by saying, “Mike Mszanski is a photographer interested in altering the scale of objects, making things grander by zooming in. He also does candid shots of people in their environment and people of different socio-economic backgrounds.”

Greta Skagerlind, a current IB Artist, stated, “The breadth and variety of the alumni exhibition was what made it stand out to me: seeing what directions previous IB Art students have gone in post-Newark Academy was really interesting and inspiring.” Not only does it provide many different types of art to experiment with in the future, it is also special because it is presented to the art community by alumni who have attributed their current successes to the exact studios Newark Academy students learn in every day.