Revere High School (RHS) prepares for their yearly tradition of the Celebration of the Arts (COA) show, which showcases art from the district. 

Revere High School has been holding the Celebration of the Arts for over 25 years, and this year it will take place the week of May 8, with the awards for the students also being given out on that day. 

The Celebration of the Arts is planned by a committee, led by Karen Smik. She is the event chair and has been organizing the event for over fifteen years. She explained that the planning of this event starts as early as the beginning of the school year. She said what aspects of the planning start in August. 

“Setting up and publicizing the process for RHS student online entry [start in August],” Smik said. 

Smik said the more serious planning, though, starts later in the year. 

“More intensive planning begins in January with determining all the details necessary to carry out the show and make it a success,” Smik said. 

She explained some of the aspects that she has to organize for the event. She has to make sure that everything runs smoothly and that she has volunteers to cover all of the jobs that need to be done. 

“[The planning includes;] recruiting judges for RHS and RMS [Revere Middle School] student COA entries; making plans for and carrying out the special senior citizens COA day; lining up student entertainment, finding local artists to provide live technique demos; and recruiting volunteers to help with various jobs,” Smik said. 

As organizer of the event, Smik has to advertise it. She explained ways that she reaches out to the community. 

“We also publicize the COA through a number of sources including area news publications, social media, as well as PTA and school district communications,” Smik said.   

Although the Celebration of the Arts show will run similar to last year’s, Smik said that she tries to add new things every few years, but it can be difficult due to the size of the committee. 

“Our planning committee is very small so we’re somewhat limited in what we can accomplish. We’ve added features to the COA over the years . . . at least for this year, we’re just trying to make sure those things continue. We do try to add things from year to year — as long as we have the manpower to carry them out,” Smik said. 

A large part of the Celebration of the Arts are the senior booths. Seniors are able to put together a booth and showcase all of their artwork they have created throughout their lives. 

Nicole Coveney is creating a senior booth. She explained how she plans to decorate the booth to make it unique to her. 

“My theme is night sky for my booth, so I’m going to paint my booth like the night sky and have fairy lights all around,” Coveney said. 

Coveney also explained how easy the booth was to make. 

“I just went online, ‘how to build a booth,’ and it pretty much worked out,” she said. 

Art teacher Bob Pierson explained that before COVID-19 restrictions, booths would be passed down from the graduating classes so the seniors did not have to build them from scratch. 

“Before COVID, there would always be people handing them down and sort of selling them but there weren’t any booths that year, so you can build them new, there’s different ways,” Pierson said.

This year there are a total of twenty-four senior booths. Pierson explained that the number has grown and also the growth in art classes in general. 

“We really only had [art] classes with [lots of students] in them the last ten years, so I think that’s a driver, is that people take a lot more art classes and more involved art classes like AP, so people have a lot of work to show. You can enter two things per category, but everyone in [AP art classes] is required to have fifteen works, so that will fill a booth,” Pierson said. 

The Celebration of the Arts will take place in the RHS aux gym after school and is open from 6:30 to 8:30. 

The best of show winner was Margaret Berrodin with her drawing “TJ2023.” 

For more Lantern coverage on Revere Art, click HERE