ASHLAND — Friday, May 1 would have marked the beginning of the 50th annual Ashland City School District Arts Festival.
Students, parents, teachers and community members would have swarmed the hallways of Ashland High School for the three-day extravaganza, which has featured live performances and art displays from students of all levels every spring for nearly five decades.
Like most in-person plans across Ashland County, this event, too, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, this show will go on. Instead of holding the 50th annual Arts Festival, the district will hold the first-ever Virtual Art Show and postpone the grand celebration planned for the 50th annual festival until next May.
It seemed now more than ever before, the community could use some art, music and celebration, said Cameron Dedrick, Ashland High School visual art teacher and assistant band director.
“This is a culminating thing the kids look forward to, and especially our seniors. Above all, I think, the hardest part of this whole situation is they were uprooted all within a day. They miss their friends, they miss their teachers,” he said. “So many things are uncertain right now, so we’re trying to implement what we can.”
He promised one student, who had designed the 50th anniversary logo, that it would be used to promote next year’s event instead. He encouraged the student, a graduating senior, to come back and visit Ashland High School for the occasion.
This year, the unique circumstances determined the event needed to be online, so Dedrick and other teachers across the district set out to make this happen.
The web page for the virtual show launched late last week and will remain accessible through the end of the school year, recognizing students from all grade levels and allowing their parents and families to enjoy artwork and recorded performances that any other year could have been seen in-person.
Most of the featured work was completed prior to Gov. Mike DeWine’s school closures in March. Teachers returned to their classrooms to take photos of any artwork left hanging on their walls and searched their cameras for pictures and videos of their students.
Viewers can visit the “Visual Arts” page to scroll through artwork by building. Each school is featured in a separate gallery.
The “Performing Arts” page starts with a video of “virtual band,” and continues with a series of videos that were recorded throughout the school year. Some were taken at rehearsals, and others at events.
“The kids all recorded their pieces separately at home, and then they were put together and it lined up,” Cameron said.
The website’s landing page is meant to be a sort-of gallery, too. It features photos from Superintendent Doug Marrah’s Instagram account. Marrah had taken and posted these photos of art and music to his account throughout the school year. Photos include students at the Ashland Art Showcase and the Ashland High School Choir at their Christmas concert.
“To not have this, it would have been a really weird thing for us. We have some really talented kids and wanted to do something to give them the notoriety they deserve,” Cameron said.
To view the Virtual Art Show, click here.
