If you are one of the estimated 40,000 visitors who attended the Rhode Island Home Show in Providence earlier this month, you were likely blown away by an art exhibit right at the entrance that that was created by a group of Tiverton High School students. 

Two whimsical, brightly colored “welcome” sculptures made of wood and stand 10 feet high, have been a labor of love for the past several months for students who, as part of the high school’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, study visual arts, carpentry or engineering. The sculptures, when unveiled at the home show, far exceeded everyone’s expectations. 

“I was there for the setup,” said THS junior Jersey Hastie, a carpentry student who helped create the pieces. “People were definitely shocked. They didn’t expect it to be as good as it was.”

An opportunity – and a challenge

Art teachers Adam Tracy and Kevin Calisto, who led the effort,  said THS students have helped out at the home show in various, low-key ways for the past four or five years.

“Since our CTE program has expanded, we felt we needed more of a presence there to showcase our talents,” said Calisto.

When the two approached the home show’s organizers, offering to do more this year, they were surprised when asked if their students could create something for the show’s entrance. Tracy and Calisto, enthusiastic but also apprehensive, said yes.

“When we heard this was going to be the first thing you see at the home show, we thought ‘Okay, can we do this?’” Tracy said. Once the commitment was made, “we knew we wanted to steal the show.”

An added challenge, however, was turnaround time, which was just a little over two months from start to finish.

Since Tracy and Calisto viewed the project as a perfect collaborative effort for students, they approached fellow teachers Bill Phillips and Jim Gauch, who run the school’s CTE carpentry and engineering programs, respectively. Both were immediately onboard.

As a first step, Tracy worked with the students to sketch out a design resembling a tropical plant.

“You can almost see Bird of Paradise leaves coming off of it,” he said. “It is supposed to look sort of floral, but not scream ‘here’s a flower.’”

Carpentry students traced the design on sheets of plywood, then used jigsaws and handsaws to cut out the intricately shaped pieces.

“They are pretty adept at using the hand tools and power tools,” Phillips said. “It took a lot of hours to cut out all of those pieces. Once they were cut out, we hand sanded them, routed them nice and smooth, put a coat of primer on them, and then the art department did their magic.”

Carpentry student Alex Monkevicz said he appreciates Phillips’ teaching style:

“He trusts us. He wouldn’t take over the project. He would tell us at the beginning of class, ‘This is what we are trying to do today,’ we’d do it, then we’d come in the next day and keep it going.”

Art students used a combination of techniques, including screen printing and hand painting, to add colorful embellishments to the wood. The contributions of engineering students included design of the bases for both sculptures.

“We had fun, creative conversations with the students,” Tracy said. “The result was loud, buzzy colors as we talked about which color to put on top of which.”

Sal Ross, a junior enrolled in the carpentry class, said he had goosebumps when he got to see the completed sculptures for the first time, after they were painted and fully assembled.

“I was shocked because I only saw the pieces of wood, and then all of a sudden, it was all painted and screen printed. The art classes did a really good job with it.”

The sculptures are currently on display at the school’s library. Tracy and Calisto envision placing them elsewhere in town, either indoors or outside, at least for the summer. Both teachers are looking for community members’ recommendations for suitable locations.