Freestyle Academy’s combined junior and senior midyear exhibition took place last Thursday, January 28, from 6-9 p.m. at the Blue Coat Systems company.

Art was sold at $10-plus apiece at the exhibition, and the $810 made in art sales was donated to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund.

Every year in late January, Freestyle exhibits students’ Narrative Projects which they have been working on mostly during second quarter and part of January. Projects include photo narratives, surreal photos, illustrations, junior HTML/CSS websites, senior flash websites and staff-selected films and animations.

Freestyle teachers and a select few student volunteers organized the Exhibition. Students included seniors Sena Absar, Amanda Zimmerman, Julia Cox, Nathaniel Seigel and Julia Pressman. The venue of the exhibition, Blue Coat Systems, was the company facilities of a Freestyle parent, Brian NeSmith, who offered to host it.

According to Web Production and Audio Engineering teacher Leo Florendo, the point of the exhibition was to provide a wider audience for students’ work other than their teachers and classmates. All work will be posted on Freestyle’s website (www.freestyle.mvla.net) as well.

“The point of what we teach at Freestyle is communication and for this particular exhibition, our goal was to show that students can communicate … through lots of mediums,” Florendo said. “Narrative ideas and stories should be told not just through words on a paper but through visual art, audio art and cinematic art also.”

Former Freestyle Design teacher Elizabeth Pedinotti came back to help with this exhibition, her last with Freestyle, and was the one to suggest that the exhibition also serve as a fundraiser for Haiti.

“I know the event was somewhat emotional for many students because it was in fact, the last time they would see Ms. Pedinotti for a very long time,” Lorendo said. “She has been an excellent Design teacher. … Students and staff alike lost an experienced and talented artist mentor and a friend. She will be greatly missed.”

Freestyle holds exhibitions, which are open to the public, three times a year. The exhibitions usually include an art gallery, website gallery, writing gallery and a film gallery, all showcasing students’ works in art, technology and communication.