Families interested in checking out our students' art at Mass MoCA over the weekend can pick up free passes at The Academy for either Saturday or Sunday. Mr. Gay will leave these passes underneath the umbrella bucket near the main door to Hobbs Hall.

Izzy B discusses how she created a pop-up story book called Sweet Dreams: A Journey Through Pop-ups in which she illustrated the story of her great-great grandmother who stole her older sister’s dowry, fled her family, and journeyed to Ellis Island.

Sophia C talks about the chapbook of poems and photographs she created, about being a teenager and growing into her sexuality, Bouquet of Secrets.

Kayla H built a greenhouse, and explains her process from design to planting. Her hope is that it will be a resource for the community and that future students will work in the greenhouse and eat the produce from it, thus building a healthy connection to the earth and to our food sources.

Isabel L is an accomplished equestrian and a lover of horses. She explains that she realized through her internship with an equine veterinarian that there’s a need to educate the community of horse owners about basic care. In response, she created a website complete with “How To” videos and a brochure, to establish a publicly available resource that can help lower the incidence of unnecessary horse problems. 

Francesca R-C explains her research, design, and building of a cob oven for The Academy. She has integrated it into the school community, teaching a popular weekly Studio Block class that emphasizes sustainable cooking and eating. 

Ishan S explains his quest for a better source of dense protein for nutrition bars and came across cricket protein. In the course of his project, “It Kinda Bugs Me”, he discovered that crickets are efficient at converting feed into protein, they consume minimal water and produce minimal greenhouse gases, though he acknowledges that there are barriers to adopting this protein source in western culture. He offered sample treats to the community. 

Tuesday, Academy Ultimate teams took on PVCICS. The Academy middle school team defeated the PVCICS middle school team 13-5 at home, while the JV team lost their game to the very physical PVCICS high school team, 12-4. Juliet C played fantastically as a handler helping others get out of tight spots. Lane M worked very hard on offense and was almost unguardable, while Everett M was flying all over the field making several amazing diving catches and plenty of great blocks.

On Wednesday, The Academy's varsity Ultimateers traveled to Greenfield to play the Four Rivers varsity girls squad--one of the best female high school teams in Massachusetts--on a windy afternoon. The Aardvarks kept the game close until the second half, when Four Rivers scored eight straight points, eventually winning, 15-6. Calla J scored twice, with Eliza B, Raymond M, Tor O, and Izzy B each adding a goal apiece. Chessie R-C played a strong game on both offense and defense, and had an assist. Despite the loss, the Charlemont crew played hard, acknowledged the skillful play of Four Rivers, and never lost their collective sense of humor.

On Thursday, the varsity lost to the Four Rivers boys JV squad 12-7 behind some great play from a number of individuals, including Nat B-O and Will D.

Hope & Feathers Framing and Gallery will host "Backscatter", a show of large-scale oil paintings by our own Mr. Green. An opening reception will be held Thursday, May 2 (5-8 PM). "Backscatter" refers to a diffuse reflection due to scattering, as opposed to specular reflection as from a mirror.

From the Gallery's news release: "Andrae's work uses painting as an exploration to delve into the unquantifiable internalized senses with which we use to perceive the world: intuition, clairvoyance, and other feelings that lie outside the physical realm. Fragility and impermanence are a constant in three-dimensional reality, and these works show those very slippages that occur due to interruptions by the metaphysical world. This speaks to our current age, where representation and reality can be interchangeable and physicality can be fleeting. History and fantasy can also be interchangeable and used to reinvent our identities. Andrae is particularly interested in how legacies of the Middle Passage and slavery can be re-imagined to fantasize alternate dimensions and multiple storylines that may not be in history books."  

The Common School will host a forum for the Pioneer Valley community on Thursday, May 16 from 5:30-7:00. Please join us as we welcome Author/Educator, Feminist and woman of Color, Zetta Elliott. Zetta is an advocate for greater diversity and equality in publishing. She has self-published numerous illustrated books for younger readers under her own imprint, Rosetta Press. Please check out Zetta’s explanation of why she writes here.