On May 13, the Illinois PTA 4th Annual SPOTLIGHT: A Children’s Celebration of Art and Community was held at Millikin University in Decatur. This year, 235 participants viewed the galleries, participated in workshops, and celebrated our children. We thank Mother Nature for providing our families a perfect day to make a day trip to Decatur and to be outside on the Millikin campus on their way to and from workshops.

Our story began last fall when students across the country were asked, “What is your story?” and the students in Illinois answered. Our children’s stories, depicted though their art, filled the galleries of Kirkland Fine Arts Center. This year, 166 Visual Arts pieces and 100 Photography pieces filled the walls of Kirkland Fine Art Center while 132 Literature, 50 Music Compositions, 54 Film Productions, and 53 Dance Choreography pieces were available for viewing. In total, 555 stories from our talented artists were available for public viewing in their chosen form of art.

The Story is Forever Changing

The SPOTLIGHT story continues to add new chapters. This year, 3 new workshops were added for our artists and their families to participate in:

  • Intro to Hip Hop invited our youngest guests to get up and move
  • Fun in the Sun–Solar Printing participants made a fun image using the light of the sun (thank you to Mother Nature for helping out here)
  • Intro to Acting encouraged creative expression and storytelling

These workshops were created by Milliken Art Education students and faculty members. These new workshops along with some favorites from past years had our families drumming, dancing, writing, drawing, sculpting, and more throughout the afternoon. All of the new workshops and many of the others were filled to capacity. The Illinois PTA Board of Directors once again hosted A Little of This, A Little of That… workshop for our youngest attendees and their families, where they tried they hands at 8 different projects during the 2 sessions.

Newly created art pieces from the workshops were shared as families gathered in the galleries between and after workshops. Many praises and thanks were extended to Illinois PTA, Millikin faculty members, and Millikin University Art Education students for making these workshops available and enjoyable for the children and the families attending with them.

Recognizing Students and their Stories

Our Recognition Celebration was definitely the highlight of the day. With family and friends there to help use celebrate, we recognized and personally thanked 71 students for participating in the National PTA Reflections program in Illinois and the Illinois PTA scholarship program. A total of 37 participants, 19 honorable mentions, 3 special artists, and 11 advancers to National crossed the stage. We also were able to honor Madelyne Ashbaugh, one of two Illinois PTA Scholarship recipients for 2017. The smiles of our students lit up the stage as they received their certificates, ribbons, and medals from Illinois PTA President Matthew Rodriguez. Backstage, our students posed for a group photos before returning to their seats.

Highlights from Spotlight 2017

  • Special Artist Toma Obayashi’ playfulness backstage as he waited for his name to be called. (Note: If we were outside Toma, I would have let you really pop that balloon under your foot.)
  • A mother that thanked us for displaying all the children’s artwork as her son showed his artwork to everyone, “He (her son) is so proud to have everyone see his picture.”
  • Sophia and Abigail O’Quinn holding hands and jumping up and down when their realized that this year they would both be going on stage to receive their recognition. Pure joy!
  • Alex Murphy’s look of surprise when he won the guitar donated by Guitar World USA.

SPOTLIGHT: Not Just an Event

SPOTLIGHT is not just another event; it is a story in and of itself. It has main characters, the children that shared their story through their art and their families that attend. It has a beautiful setting because of the commitment Millikin University has to celebrating children and the Arts. And it has supporting cast members that make it possible, the volunteers of Illinois PTA that understand, support, and believe in what we have built together for our children. As Illinois PTA President Matthew John Rodriguez said, “There are many Reflections recognition events run by state PTAs, but none come close to what SPOTLIGHT provides for children and families.” During the next couple days, we hope you reflect on this year’s SPOTLIGHT event and it brings a smile to your face. If you attended, we would love to hear from you, and please share some of your highlight moments from the day with us.

A photo album from SPOTLIGHT 2017 available on the Illinois PTA Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/2017PTASPOTLIGHT

National PTA Announces 2015-2016 Reflections Results

During the past school year, through the National PTA level of the Reflections Program, nearly 300,000 students in over 8,000 schools across the country and in U.S. schools overseas contributed their original works in dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography, and visual arts to be considered for PTA’s highest honor in the arts.

For each arts category, one Outstanding Interpretation Award is chosen. Then, for each age group in each arts category, three Awards of Excellence and five Awards of Merit are selected as well. Illinois PTA is pleased to announce that three Illinois students were recognized this year by National PTA:

Award of Excellence

  • Jessica Liu: High School, Literature, DuPage West Region

Award of Merit

  • Sara Dixon: High School, Film Production, DuPage West Region
  • Holly Bulthuis: High School, Visual Arts, South Suburban Cook Region

Illinois PTA congratulates these students on their success. We look forward to seeing what all of our children do with next year’s PTA Reflections theme, “Within Reach.”