Every year the district sends one or two of our incredible artist off to the New York State Summer School of the Arts - NYSSSA. This past summer, Hunter Tobin was the Hoosic Valley NYSSSA artist. Here's a description of the program in her own words.......
Over the summer, I ended up going to NYSSSA for a month. I lived on the Fredonia college campus in a dorm room with a roommate. I ended up meeting so many interesting people while I was there. Every single person had so many different styles and personalities. We all had set meal times to go and eat at the college cafe; or you could go to the campus Starbucks. As for classes, there were many. I happen to have taken the Figure drawing class and the 3D Mixed media class.
My figure studies class was my first class for the morning, (we had to walk to class every day for both classes) the Figure Drawing class was taught by an artist from Haiti. The Mixed Media class was my second class in the afternoon. That class was taught by an artist from Mexico. The figure class consisted of a lot of model drawing from life. Each model was completely different from the next. In the mixed media class we were assigned to make a 5ft tall sculpture out of cardboard. Each class was about 2-3 hours long. So you could get a lot of work done.
They had tons of other things to do on the weekend and in between class times. There were so many field trips we went on. We went to the beach, a museum, a botanical garden, and a mall. Sometimes we had a small assignment depending on where we were going. After a couple of days we got the privilege to walk into town. Where you could go and hang out at a sushi place or find a thrift store and there was a small Harry Potter themed cafe. The best part was going to the farmers market. We were aloud to head up to the library roof and hang out. I ended up spending a lot of time with the friends I made either at the cafe, the library or the dorm rooms.
Overall it was a wonderful experience to have and an amazing opportunity. All of the teachers and visiting artists were wonderful. It has helped me to grow into a better artist and meet other young artists like myself. Anybody who decides to go next will definitely not be bored and will completely enjoy themselves.
Thanks to Hunter for sharing her experience with us.
Check out some of Hunter's artwork