This Year’s Fine Arts Festival
Monroe High School is bringing back its biannual Fine Arts Festival (FAF) on April 28th and 29th. Due to Covid, the last FAF was in 2019, so only current MHS seniors have ever experienced one back when they were freshmen. This year MHS students can choose to participate in 10 of the 85 offerings led by 30 master artists or ensembles. Students can attend musical performances, yoga and meditation, pottery demonstrations, dance performances, and presentations by their peers in band, choir, public speaking, and theatre. Furthermore, there are interactive workshops being led by a metalsmith, a filmmaker, a soapmaker, a baker, an actor, a cheesemaker, a jeweler, a painter, and more. Beyond that, there are two all-school projects where any student can paint a part of one of two different murals to be displayed at the school. Plus, there are also two all school assemblies, and musicians attending lunches both days. Special thanks goes to the Monroe Arts Center that co-sponsored one of the assemblies, The Science of Sound with Michel Lauziere.
History of the Fine Arts Festival
The Fine Arts Festival (FAF) was started in the early 1970s by teachers Al Stauffacher and Walt Pawlowski as a way for all students to be exposed to the arts. After Walt passed away in 1997, Kathy King was hired as an art teacher and co-chairman of the FAF, which she did until she retired. This year’s Festival is chaired by art teachers Jan Douglas and Rebecca Jablonski, and Learning and Technology Coach, Susan Anderson.
The Festival is possible because of the generosity of people in the Monroe community. There is no cost to students, parents, or the school district. The community wholeheartedly supports the festival through donations by individual families, businesses, and community nonprofit organizations. Thank you to all of the community members, staff, and administration that has supported this wonderful event.
Join Us for the Alumni Art Show
Community members are invited to attend a new part of the FAF this year: the Alumni Art reception on Sunday April 24 from 4:00-6:00pm. Please park in the arch parking lot and enter through the main doors. Alumni artwork will be on display in the atrium by the front arch from Sunday April 24 through Friday May 6. All are invited to stop in.
Join Us for the Empty Bowl Dinner & A Show
All community members are also invited to MHS for the Empty Bowl Dinner & A Show on Thursday April 28 beginning at 4:30pm. We have over 400 bowls handmade by our ceramics students ready for purchase for $10 each. Patrons choose a bowl to purchase and then choose a delicious soup provided by 9 local restaurants: Pancho & Lefty’s, Baumgartner’s, Amy’s Corner Cafe, Minhas Kitchen, Barb’s Potato Salad, Chopsticks, the Northsider Bar & Grill, Suisse Haus, and Garden Deli. Salad and breadsticks will also be available provided with dessert treats by MHS Strive and Daily Living students in our special education program. All of the proceeds from the Empty Bowl dinner will be donated to Backpack Buddies and Monroe Way Station: two organizations that address food insecurity in our community among our students. In the past, the Empty Bowl dinner has raised $2,000, and we are hoping to match or beat that this year.
As part of the dinner, all guests are invited to attend One Stoplight Town, a one act play directed by MHS junior EJ Jordan featuring a cast of MHS students. One Stoplight Town is a story about people from a town so small that you might drive through without taking a second look. But if you stopped for just a moment, you might see a young boy and girl fall in love, a cantankerous grocery store owner coping with change, a son returning home while a daughter thinks about leaving, and a handyman taking it all in while he fixes what is broken. These stories and more are filled with fun characters, lots of humor, plenty of heart and the theme that change comes for us all, whether we are ready or not. Showtimes are at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and 7:00 p.m. Friday at the MHS Performing Arts Center. Admission is free, but donations for future one act productions are gladly accepted at the door.
— Susan Anderson taught high school English for 13 years, and now she currently serves as the MHS Learning and Technology Coach. This is the third Fine Arts Festival she has co-chaired.
