Troy Art Day: students connect, learn, express themselves

Arts & Entertainment – The Tropolitan

(PHOTO/ Stacey Groome)Nearly 400 middle and high school students joined Troy University students and faculty in  the fourth annual Troy Art Day. Many of the students contributed artwork for Troy’s VAAP competition. (PHOTO/Stacey Groome)


Lacey Alexander
Staff Writer
Nearly 400 middle and high school students from Alabama participated in the fourth annual Trojan Art Day on Friday, Feb. 24.
Twenty-four counties were represented at the event, and students stayed on Troy’s campus from 8:15 a.m. to roughly 2 p.m. The students participated in workshops, classes, tours and an award ceremony that closed the event.
Larry Percy, associate professor of art at Troy, lead Trojan Art Day.
“This was our fourth year, and I think it was probably our biggest and best,” Percy said. “Each year has been an expansion of the year before . . . I could not do it without the support of my chair and the full faculty.”
“In terms of providing the experiences and creating the workshops, each one of them kind of decides what they want to do.”
Percy taught a workshop on creating bowls with clay, and the other offered workshops and events ranged from sidewalk chalk drawing to digital art.
“Sarah Dismukes did calligraphy,” Percy said. “And she isn’t necessarily an expert on that, she just wanted to learn more about it herself . . . You know that old saying, ‘if you want to learn something, teach it to somebody else.’”
Troy art students were also heavily involved in Trojan Art Day, serving as ambassadors.
After each professor decides what they want to do, they identify student helpers they want personally, according to Percy.
Marcus Dorsey, a senior graphic design major from Montgomery, served as the ceramic demonstrator during the event and social media coordinator.
“Being able to work with these students and see the work that they are producing, especially at the age that they ...


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