Cape Central High School art department shines, is 'one big melting pot'

This time of the year, Cape Girardeau Central High School is chock-full of art.

The walls are covered in drawings. The showcases full of sculptures and pottery. Some hallways feature gigantic papier-mache models of food, and even the walls have become a canvas. One of the most recent projects included floor-to-ceiling-sized murals crafted out of bits of multicolored painter’s tape.

Robert Friedrich, who teaches sculpture at the school, said the volume of art on display is a testament to how integral art is to the culture of the school.

“We have such a diverse student body,” he said. “That gives us a lot of opportunity for the students to collaborate with one another and even for the students and teachers to learn from one another. ... It’s one of the things that helps us to have so many strong artists.”

And Jon Daniels, the school’s art department chairman, said what’s on display at the school represents only about half of what the students have produced so far this semester.

Juniors Grace Groshong, left, and Hailey Fraser work to complete an untitled painter's tape mural depicting a parrot near the school lobby April 3 at Cape Girardeau Central High School.TYLER GRAEF

“A lot of it’s out at other shows and exhibits right now,” he said, including exhibits in Sikeston and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus in Cape Girardeau.

The objective in many classes, Friedrich said, is to move past the demonstration of technique for technique’s sake. In other words, the focus is on the art rather than the grade.

“A lot of our assignments are designed not only to get students to create something original, but for them do produce work that they will actually be proud of,” he said.

He said he recently spoke with a former student who, after many years, still displayed work he created in high school in his Memphis, Tennessee, home as an adult.

“To me, that’s probably the best compliment we could get. We don’t want people doing ‘closet art,’” Friedrich said. “Where you finish it and your mom puts it in a box. If you make the art work, the grade will come. You just gotta make the art work.”

Robert Friedrich stands beneath a student's mural April 3 at Cape Girardeau Central High School.TYLER GRAEF

To experienced art students such as seniors Alexis Richardson and Elsie Caldwell, being able to adorn the walls of their school with their art helps them feel more like an important part of the fabric of the school.

Their tape mural, for instance, showed a gigantic pair of mirrored koi fish they said they chose because they thought the school needed something colorful that wasn’t necessarily another tiger.

And for underclassmen such as sophomores Zak Mayfield and Abigail Kester, being part of a close community helps them express themselves.

“It’s a judgment-free zone. It doesn’t matter how weird or crazy your idea is,” Kester said. “It’s just great to be able to have an idea and bring it out and actually do it.”

Daniels said the school is hoping to continue to foster the art department through a new program called Central Light, which will include a variety of fine art exhibitions on multiple platforms.

“You find another school south of St. Louis that has the [art community] that we have,” he said. “And art is a universal language. We’ve been able to build just one big melting pot.”

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627