"The Human Spirit"

          This show is a collection of student artwork and writing produced to celebrate the courage and tragedy of 9-11, 2001.
          The idea for this show had been slowly growing in the days and weeks following that terrible morning in September.
          I felt, as an artist, that I needed to do something, but was not sure exactly what. As art teachers at Chenango Forks, we also saw that most of the students seemed to feel the desire to do something, but were not sure how to proceed. We could see bits and pieces of the events popping up in studentÆs artwork, but most students seemed like they were waiting for ôpermissionö to deal with the events in an open and direct manner.
          That permission came in the form of an open invitation from the Society of Illustrators in New York City, to all artists and art students, to contribute to a memorial show to be exhibited at the Society gallery in NYC. When we mentioned the idea to the students, the floodgates opened. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we were unable to make the RSVP deadline. Our students however, were in the midst of producing some very moving and strong pieces of work.
          I took this as an opportunity to do my ôsomethingö and we approached the Broome County Public Library to see if they would help us put on our own memorial exhibit (and they graciously agreed to lend us their space).
          We then approached our colleagues at Chenango Valley to see if they would like to join us. We are pleased they agreed to do so. We decided to follow the lead of the Society of Illustrators as far as theme went, and called our show "The Human Spirit". The idea was to focus on the courage, the sacrifice and the compassion displayed in reaction to the attack, the triumph of the human spirit over horrible adversity. We asked students to celebrate the positive instead of looking at the negative.
          We think you will agree, that their vision and their message is at once, sophisticated, powerful and deeply moving.

                                                   Keith Rosko