Sivuqaq, Hugo T. Apatiki School

2020-2021

Elementary, middle school, and high school students explored art in 3 dimensions with Britni Reeves.

Marker landscapes. art teacher, Britni Reeves, helped students focus on texture and rhythm in these landscape drawings using markers as their medium.

Piet Mondrian Inspired art by elementary students at the school in Gambel, 2021

Students studied Piet Mondrian and created images from their own lives using his style as inspiration.

Oil Pastel Drawings

Second grade students worked with art teacher Britni Reeves to create abstract drawings of the day and nigh sky.

Zentangle animal portraits created by middle and high school students.

Art teacher Britni Reeves helped students create portraits of animals found within the village.

2019-2020

Sivuqaq Parka-Making project

Shem Rose Koonooka works with high school students in Sivuqaq (Gambell) to make traditional clothing. They are working on parkas, warm-coats made with a variety of fabrics and furs. This is a huge undertaking for these young people and comes after a year of independent and collaborative sewing projects in which their classes produced many smaller articles of traditional dress.

Even though each student is working to make his or her own product, they join together laying out, measuring, and cutting patters because these young adults know the extra hand and extra eyes are needed to get it just right. Their final product will be warm, durable, and traditional clothing they can be proud of.

Students learn technical skills and use modern sewing technologies.

Sivuqaq students take pride in their work, perfecting their stitch to create durable, high quality products that will last for many years. -- Sivuqaq Parka-Making Project, 2020.

Students make careful stitches and line up their patturns so the lining and outer layer nest evently in the final product.

Students sew with traditional materials.

The Sivuqaq Parka-Making Project was made possible by the generous funding from the Ciri Foundation, the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Alaska State Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Bering Strait School District. It is a part of the New Visions initiative.