AZTEC – Four Animas High School students beat senioritis by focusing their final project on something they’re passionate about: the arts.
Sophie May, Avery Colclough, Anya Mcmillen and Penny Mark – who all have deep ties to the art world through various passions and hobbies – have spent the past six months curating a full-scale, two-day arts festival that took place this weekend at the Tico Time River Resort in Aztec.
“Everyone has the problem of giving up senior year, and I think I definitely would have given up more if I didn’t have this project to motivate me to keep doing something,” Anya said. “… (With this) project, I’ve been able to work really hard, and do a lot of work for something that means something to me, and is a real-world thing, and I’m learning a lot of things that I can take with me.”
The Under One Moon Arts Festival ran 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
The four created their own nonprofit – Peaks and Valleys Arts Partnership – to fund and operate the event, and plan to pass the 501(c)(3) down to a group of juniors next year.
The students operated on a $7,500 budget, meaning it was necessary to rely on donations, discounts, budgeting, and some community generosity to make the festival happen, the four said.
Tico Time donated the venue, along with its lighting and sound set up, and some of the bands agreed to play for free.
The festival’s headliners – Boomroots, a reggae rock hip hop band from Santa Fe, and Graham St. Clair, a country music group from Texas – were paid, which involved some careful budgeting, the group said.
Support from the community and entities like Tico Time helped make the festival possible, Anya said.
“We want to support our community, but we’ve needed the support of our community to pull that off,” she said.
Six regional bands and a range student musicians from local music organizations like Stillwater Music played on each day of the festival – but music wasn’t the only form of art highlighted at the two-day event. Dance performances, films and some visual art in the form of photo-printing on donated clothing were also part of the lineup.
Tickets sold for $40 for a two-day pass and $25 for a one-day pass, and all proceeds went to Durango Friends of the Arts and the Genesis Inspiration Foundation.
Ticket sales raised around $5,000, the organizers said.
Durango resident Bridget McDougall attended both days of the festival with her family.
“I wanted to (come) to support youth in music,” she said. “This seemed like a cool way to do that.”
Getting the festival on its feet was as challenging as it was rewarding, the group said.
Gaining trust and getting responses from adults as high school students was difficult at times, and the rapid-fire timeline for getting the event organized could be stressful, the students said. Balancing festival demands with regular schoolwork and extracurricular commitments was also a challenge.
All in all, the group estimates they devoted around 500 hours to the project.
“The vast majority of your time is spent on Gmail, just emailing back and forth and back and forth between people,” Anya said. “I think we all have unhealthy relationships with our emails right now.”
The group learned how to launch a nonprofit; open a business bank account; budget; conduct outreach and balance a demanding schedule – all skills the students said they’ll take with them after graduation.
Some of the most rewarding moments in the process were when the group’s hard work paid off, and when the community rallied around the effort, Sophie said.
“The little moments where things actually do work out – like when we secured a venue – that was really exciting,” she said. “… It’s really uplifting to know that there are people in the community that are passionate about this as well, and that wanted to help us throughout this.”
Lori Fisher, one of Animas High School’s founders, said the free-flowing nature of the school’s senior projects allows students to take something they’re passionate about and turn that interest into a valuable learning experience.
“I think the coolest part about the process of the senior thesis and senior project is that they get this dual experience that is really customized to their interest,” she said. “… Their senior project really just provides them with this whole other set of skills that are real world, and authentic.”
Penny said the process of organizing the festival – and seeing the outcome it created – was an uplifting experience for the team.
“When people do come together this way, and put in the time to communicate with each other, and support each other in planning, a lot of good can come out,” she said.
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