Without the creative endeavors Northtown students pursue, who’d be using the auditorium stage? Why would people attend school assemblies? What’d be shown inside the hallway’s case displays? Whose music would we hear during halftime at football games? Who’d be taking home awards for district and state festivals?
The diverse array of art that Northtown students create helps to give the school its unique identity, from the visual to performing arts. But there’s a process to everything students create.
Visual Arts
Hundreds of students are enrolled in visual arts classes at Northtown. Students experiment everything from sculptures to photography.
“I hope I make them think about concepts or ideas that they have never considered before,” said art teacher Josie Ferrantelle.
The first few months of school for these classes are generally spent getting to know students’ strengths, weaknesses, and personalities in order to best utilize and improve their talents. This year, the department is working with a few select students to design a mural at Briarcliff Elementary.
Writers Society
The Writers Society is an organization that’s run at Northtown for a few years, facilitating a place where creatives can make and share written work with events like open mics.
“I think my favorite thing [about the club] is just seeing like, how other people are passionate about writing. […] It’s just all the different perspectives, different writers, the different genres that people write in,” club sponsor Joseph Barnes said.
The Writers Society’s first meeting of the year was held on October 16th to get a feel for what direction the club should take this year.
As the fall concert season wraps up, North Kansas City High School’s music department begins preparing a new lineup of pieces for upcoming performances and events.
Orchestra
“We have a goal this year to bring more music to our community,” said orchestra director Sheree Yoder.
For the past few years, the orchestra has repeatedly adapted to meet the accommodations of all aspiring orchestra players in order to expand Northtown’s musical reach. The number of orchestra classes grew from two a few years ago to four, one of which serves as an advisory block for students that cannot fit a regular orchestra class into their schedule. Each class offers different music pieces for different skills and styles.
Currently, in addition to volunteer and community projects, orchestra students are prepping for all-district honor auditions and the upcoming winter concert.
Choir
Generally, the most challenging part of the year for Northtown’s choir is always the first few months leading up to the fall concert. This year, around half of Northtown’s choir are freshmen.
“For all those students, they’re still trying to figure out where things are and who to ask for what and which bathrooms are available, and then I put them on stage in front of hundreds of people and ask them to put on a performance. They have risen to the occasion,” said choir director Danielle Enriquez-Fowler.
Following their fall concert, the choir groups went straight back to work. The acapella choir performed for GloWild at the zoo on October 18th and is currently preparing for a future hornets community sing event with the feeder elementary and middle schools on October 30th. Students of all choir groups are currently busy preparing for all-district honor auditions and the winter concert.
Tri-M Honor Society
It’s no secret that Northtown’s artistic reach spreads beyond the walls of our building. The events that Northtown’s new Tri-M society has planned are hoping to spread that reach even further.
The Tri-M Music Honor Society is a national honor society for middle and high school students, aiming to recognize both academic and musical achievements and provide leadership opportunities for all musical disciplines. Northtown’s Tri-M branch started up just last year, with Sheree Yoder as the society’s advisor. Official inductees must maintain at least a 3.0 GPA and stay involved with the society with meetings and projects. However, any Northtown student, regardless of official induction status, is allowed to attend Tri-M meetings and events.
The organization is currently planning many service projects, like visiting City Union Mission to perform and help serve dinner for the homeless and caroling at nursing homes and retirement facilities.
