The Magic Halloween Art Factory At Bishop Gibbons Went Into Overdrive. See What You Have Done

This Halloween season, Sue Silverstein opened the gates of her amazing Bishop Gibbons High School Magical Art Factory to all the students in the school.

Those who sent and are still those boxes of metal, fabric, and discarded jewelry can hardly imagine how much joy, confidence, and creativity you are bringing to the students at Bishop Gibbons High School in Schenectady, New York.

And thank you, the boxes come almost every day from all over the country.

(Above, the first Bishop Gibbons Art Club pumpkin)

My mission is to let you know what you have done.

These eight photographs, all taken by Art Teacher Sue Silverstein, will help you to understand what I mean.

(Hser Nay with her new purse and table piece.)

They have been cranking out an astonishing range of clothes, jewelry, totem pole bases, and costumes for Halloween Day today.

I asked Sue to send me some photographs; they are pretty amazing. I wanted to share them with you because everything we see in the pictures comes from things sent by the Army Of Good from good people all over the country.

For all the anger, hate, and craziness raging in our country, no one will ever convince me that most people are good and want to do good.

That includes found metal objects, forgotten or abandoned jewelry, clay sculptures, wood carving, fabrics, wooden poles, sewing and art materials, paint, and beads.

Come and see what your generosity has wrought.

Sue has created one of the unique high school art programs I’ve ever heard of or seen. She has eight cubicles, each devoted to a different form of art, from painting to jewelry-making to the totem-pole building to wind chimes to sewing clothes for their family and the poor and needy, students can choose their medium, and Sue stays behind after school hours every day to make the art cubicles open to anyone.

She has told me more than once that this would be impossible without the things you have sent and are sending her. In addition, we’ve re-stocked the school library with hundreds of contemporary books the students love and read. And Sue now has a beautiful art library for the students to browse, thanks to the remarkable Alys Culhane of the Bright Lights Book Project in Palmer, Alaska.