Gladstone, West team up for ‘Peaceful Playground’

By Jen Cowart
Posted 4/28/16

Students from Valerie Bruzzi’s Advanced Art II honors class at Cranston High School West worked together recently to create a “Peaceful Playground” for their younger peers at Gladstone …

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Gladstone, West team up for ‘Peaceful Playground’

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Students from Valerie Bruzzi’s Advanced Art II honors class at Cranston High School West worked together recently to create a “Peaceful Playground” for their younger peers at Gladstone Elementary School.

The art students, as well as any other art students interested in helping out with the project, painted bright, colorful game spaces on the blacktop at the elementary school over several days’ time, after spending a great deal of time in the classroom preparing the project.

“This is a partnership between West and Gladstone, between the upper and lower grades,” Gladstone Principal Sue Buonanno said. “I sent over a design on paper to them and they worked in the classroom to scale it to the right size for the blacktop before coming over here.”

Buonanno’s design incorporated games such as tic-tac-toe, hopscotch, and four square, which would be painted on the large blacktop area outside of the school and utilized by the Gladstone students during their recess times. Each game space was to be painted twice on the blacktop, once on either side of an existing painting of planet Earth.

The first day the art students arrived at Gladstone from West during the school day to begin measuring, taping, and chalking their designs, they battled 50 mph winds as they mapped out their plans on the recess grounds. The high school students worked together with in small groups with each design, measuring for accuracy before any paint was opened. Bruzzi provided assistance as needed, checking in with the groups along the way and helping to make sure measurements and designs were accurate. Buoanno provided a variety of bright colored paint, along with the needed rollers, brushes, and buckets.

During the week of April vacation, Bruzzi, along with her husband Darko Krsulic and the high school students, returned to Gladstone to spend the needed time finishing up the project. At completion the grounds were bright and cheerful, ready for the younger students’ use. According to Buonanno, the students will be given instructions on how to play the various new games that have been painted on the blacktop area.

The following West art students were involved in the project: Victoria Williams, Kelci Marasco, Yhoanne Vasquez, Josh Machado, Taylor Gooding, Jenna Notarianni, Julia Chenel, Sarah Richer, Jessica Bates, Heather DiFazio, Cody Chu, Victoria Bertrand, Anita Fang, Talia Farnoli, Kaitlyn McNally, Caroline Ohsberg, Theodore Paola, Keara Pedroso, Christy Wardle, Tessa Wulff, and Inthavha Singharaj.

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