03/18/10

Magnet Art Program Provides Artwork for JT Festival Guide

Students create special art for opening page of guide in May 2010 issue

By Lee Mergner

It's not a reality show, but it is real life. For the last three years, students at the prestigious Visual Arts Center at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington, Md. have taken on the assignment of illustrating the Jazz & Blues Festival Guide that runs in the May issue of JazzTimes. This year the magazine received artwork from over a dozen students, each with a very different vision for how to visually represent a jazz festival. The artwork is displayed here.

The editors and designers of JazzTimes picked one piece to kick off the Festival Guide running in the May issue. The winner will be featured on the Contributors page of that same issue and, in addition, the winner will get a credit, a cash prize and the envy of their peers. Feel free to let us know which pieces of art you like.

Special thinks to their teachers, Michael Piechocinski and Jane Walsh, who oversaw this real-life class assignment for these talented young people.