By:McKayla Williams ‘24

Inspired students have banded together to bring some extra color and light to the Dean’s office by turning Mrs. Ediam’s chalkboard into a masterpiece. 

Four weeks ago, Mrs. Ediam of the Dean’s office, reached out to the Sem campus for any students, staff, or faculty with a little creativity to spare in order to make the Dean’s office a brighter working space, and was met with enormous talent. Alla Staroseltseva’s (‘22) work was the first to be displayed on the chalkboard next to Mrs. Eidam’s desk and the project has only taken off from there. 

The newest chalk artwork was announced to the Upper school on February second and has garnered a lot of attention since then. This artwork was created by four students, Paige Collins (‘22), Emera Humphreys (‘23), Evan Swartz (‘22), and Victoria Smulowitz(‘22).   “It’s brought positivity and joy,” Mrs. Ediam said about the newest artwork. Paige Collins was interviewed about this chalk art. “I was inspired by some photos of women in nature so I drew the girl in a dress sitting in a landscape,” she said.  As she worked on the centerpiece of the chalkboard, her peers joined in and began to draw from their own imaginations and it all ended up blending into the art piece that is so well loved in the Dean’s Office. Collins enjoyed working with her peers and seeing how their different art styles were visible through the different ways they worked the medium while also enjoying it for herself as chalk is very similar to her favorite medium, chalk pastels. When asked about the challenges that came with working on the chalkboard, her response was, “…to not rest my hand on the chalkboard, otherwise I would have smeared it.”

These beautiful pieces done in chalk bring a little extra light and creativity to the Dean’s office while also representing the diverse talent found at Wyoming Seminary while offering an outlet for our very own artists to continue to showcase their abilities while contributing to the beauty of our school populace.