Every Thursday afternoon at 4:05pm, our sunny Secondary Art Room is made all the more so by a group of students in the Art Club. Created by Secondary students Sofia Yadigaroglu and Sasha Marmur this fall, the club brings together students with a passion for art to work on independent projects.
This winter, they took a break from their individual pieces to dedicate time to our 2022 gala, “Onward & Upward: Célébrons la vie !” The annual gala is an essential fundraising event at the Lycée that supports academic and co-curricular programs for our students and scholarships, helping ensure that the Lycée is accessible to as many children as possible.
Inma Barrero, artist and parent, imagined an environment that celebrates the Lycée’s raison d’être: our students!
Under Inma’s tutelage, the Secondary Student Art Club and a meticulous group of parent volunteers have created 80 lanterns that will illuminate the Cipriani ballroom with silhouettes of Lycée students on March 31st.
“Across the room, we will see children of all ages and backgrounds coming together, moving, reading, playing, dancing, jumping, painting, playing instruments,” says Inma of the artistic vision for the evening. “The lanterns provide light for us, and the silhouettes around the room are sources of light as well, reminding us that our children, the students of the Lycée, bring light into our lives.”
To create the lanterns and installations, the Art Club photographed students of all ages. The images were then cut out and printed as silhouettes. In the art room, students mapped out design plans for each lantern and worked one by one to adhere silhouettes to the lantern paper. Parent volunteers managed a similar process to creating the lanterns, small worlds reflecting school life. Each lantern is handmade and unique.
Student art will take many forms on March 31st, including movement. In dialogue with the children’s silhouettes across the room, a group of Lycée student dancers will be performing a shadow dance live with the dance company Pilobolus. We thank Pilobolus for not only performing at the Gala this evening, but also holding workshops to teach the choreography to the Lycée student dancers taking part in the evening’s performance.
“What an amazing thing this community is,” adds Inma. “Our world got small during the pandemic. Especially in our international community, our friends became family all the more. The Lycée was such an important part of that.”
With deepest gratitude to Inma and our dedicated team of student and parent volunteers for all they are doing to make a poetic, beautiful moment for the school for benefit of all of our students.
Lycée Français de New York Gala 2022
Onwards & Upwards : Célébrons la vie
Thursday, March 31 at 6pm
lfnygala.org
About the Author :
May Bayer joined the Development team at the Lycée in 2017 as Assistant Manager of Events. Born and raised in Boston, she graduated from Colgate University and then began her career in development and special events at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston before moving to New York City. Outside of work, May enjoys riding her bike in Central Park, volunteering with her university’s alumni club, and exploring the city, especially its many museums and restaurants.