This fall, American Sign Language 3 and 4 entered the National ASL Honor Society Deaf Art Contest in conjunction with our Visual Art unit.  Westfield ASL students worked diligently to study Deaf Art and learn about well-known Deaf artists.  ASL 3 & ASL 4 students deepened their understanding of the art by analyzing the symbolism of motifs and colors in addition to applying their knowledge of Deaf Culture and events in Deaf history. 

Over 30 of our upper-level students entered the annual Fall Art Contest sponsored by the ASL Teacher’s Association through the National ASL Honor Society.  Westfield High School students competed with over 800 other contestants which was personally judged by famous Deaf Artist, Ann Silver (http://www.deafart.org/Biographies/Ann_Silver/ann_silver.html). 

Out of the over 800 contestants nation-wide 3 of our students received a gold medallion, which means they were finalists in the top 2% of the contest being considered for 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd place.  10 of our students received a silver medallion which means they were in the top 10% of the pieces submitted.

Our very own, Katie Bresnahan won 2^nd place in the category of original art for her mixed-media piece entitled ‘Culture’. In her ASL explanation of her art presented in class, Katie described the piece as each individual color representing the diversity of those in the Deaf Community coming together as one culture or rainbow; and behind the film overlay, there are pictures depicting the ASL sign for “Culture”