Freestyle Academy of Communication Arts and Technology was forced to cut back the number of exhibitions this year because of the work required to put on shows. To compensate, Freestyle has put a greater emphasis on the Mid-Year Exhibition scheduled for Saturday, January 31, which has put an extra strain on the students.

The administration cut back the number of Freestyle exhibitions from five exhibitions to only three. These numbers include the Junior Exhibition, which is a smaller exhibition only for first-years and takes place on campus.

According to Freestyle’s Lead Teacher Gordon Jack, Freestyle does not have a large enough facility for the main exhibitions. These exhibitions therefore need to take place in venues off of campus.

“It is just a lot of work to put on the exhibitions,” Jack said. “A lot of that work is done by the students, which is great, but a lot of that work is also done by the teachers.”

Jack mentioned Design teacher Elizabeth Pedinotti in particular. According to Jack, she is responsible for hanging up all of the photographs and illustrations for the exhibition. This was extremely hard when Freestyle had an exhibition after every unit.

“We just scaled it back this year,” Jack said. “And we have two big units at Freestyle—we just decided to make those bigger exhibitions.”

Many students, on the other hand, find that the change actually makes things more stressful. Junior Mia Waldern feels that the new emphasis is putting more pressure on her.

“I am kind of nervous,” Mia said. “To finish on time, you have to decide what parts you want to do well and what parts you don’t really care about.”

Freestyle currently has not determined a location for the next two exhibitions. The staff is trying to get more support from corporations and local businesses.
According to Jack, Freestyle had similar funding problems in recent years. Last year, Freestyle had a conflict with its Final Exhibition, as Apple Inc. initially agreed to fund it but later backed out.