The Southern Delaware School of the Arts, temporarily housed in the “old” Indian River High School – otherwise known as the John M. Clayton Building – will be hosting a Silent Art Auction this Saturday, May 10, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., to coincide with the school’s World Fair celebration.
Coastal Point • Monica Fleming
Art teacher Jamie Moore poses with depictions of the John M. Clayton building up for auction Saturday.
“The fair is to celebrate two things: first our 10-year anniversary as a school,” said art teacher Jamie Moore. “And, second, the whole school has been studying the Gilded Age this year and our fair is based on the World’s Fair [of 1893].”
Pencil drawings and acrylic paintings portraying the John M. Clayton building, done by seventh- and eighth-grade artists will be on display in the art room and up for auction. All funds raised in the auction will benefit the PTO.
“I’ve never worked with kids so capable,” said Moore, who is in her second year as art teacher at SDSA after moving here from the Annapolis after a 30-yr career with schools in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
The seventh- and eighth-graders have been studying their temporary educational home while their school in Selbyville undergoes renovations. The John M. Clayton building, which currently houses SDSA and the Indian River School District’s administrative offices, has seen a lot of action these past few years.
Before SDSA and the administrative offices moved in, students from Lord Baltimore Elementary were temporarily relocated there during renovations at that school, and after renovation at SDSA are completed, students from Frankford Elementary will move in for the 2008-2009 school year while their school gets updates.
“The building was built in 1932,” said Moore. “Since it is hosting us here during our renovations, we wanted to pay respect to the building.”
“So many people in the community have connections to the school,” she continued. “Either they graduated from or taught at the school, or their parents or grandparents did,” said Moore.
Lauren Grise, a fourth-grade teacher at the school and an Indian River High School graduate, agreed and added that they are encouraging people in community who attended the school to come to this weekend’s fair and auction, to see how the integrity of the school is captured in the artwork.
Grise added that each grade level will have a booth at the fair, featuring a different country. The day will start off with a 5K run, and there will also be a moon bounce. The art auction will be held in the art room, which is the garage, in the back of the building.
According to the Indian River School District, after retiring as a “staging area” for district schools undergoing renovations, the old Indian River High School building will itself be renovated in the coming years. It will be officially renamed the John M. Clayton School and will house students “in an educational program to be determined by the district and a special committee designed to explore potential uses for the facility.”