Attendance was high at Arts Alive! at the Cole Auditorium Saturday, but not as high as the marks those in attendance gave for Richmond

County Schools students’ artwork and performances.

Sarah Forester wandered up and down aisles of artwork as she waited for her sixth grader to play in the Hamlet Middle Band.

“It’s very creative - really, it’s just amazing,” she said. “They have some really talented kids, and they really showed their talent with this artwork.”

“It’s amazing,” Catherine Turner said as she perused artwork with her husband, Dennis, and one of their children. “These kids did a great job.”

She said they were also waiting to see their daughter to play saxophone in the performance by the Hamlet Middle band.

“I’ve really enjoyed this,” Dennis said.

Pola Lipson is the art teacher at Monroe Avenue Elementary. She stood by her students’ work on display to discuss it with the public as they viewed the exhibition.

“I’m just so proud of them,” she said. “We have pictures they made, and pictures of them making the pictures, which people have really enjoyed seeing. But, we explored Picasso, and we used a lot of different mediums - crayons, painting. The parents have just had a wonderful response.”

“I am so impressed,” Richmond County Board of

Education Chairman Bruce Stanback said. “I’m also impressed with the community for showing up the way they have. They’ve really supported this. But, the artwork’s great, the performances were incredible - this is why it’s important to have the arts in education.”

The Richmond Senior High Chorus was one highlight of the day. Their performance of the Curtis Mayfield classic, “It’s All Right,” for its finale had the crowd in the auditorium clapping and swaying, and elicited a huge applause.

“We worked every single day for two hours on this performance,” Senior Kelby Snead said. “That’s for three months, Monday through Friday.”

She had a solo in the group’s finale, though it didn’t bother her

because she’s used to being on stage with a contemporary Christian band she’s been in for eight years.

“I love our chorus - it’s really good,” she said.

“I thought it went really well,” Senior Ethan Greene said. “I think everybody did what they were supposed to do, and it was a good show.

Everybody in the audience looked like they were into it.”

Priyank Patel performed with the high school?s band. He only has one performance after this before graduating and leaving the RSHS Band.

“I don’t get nervous out there,” he said. “You just want to put on a good show. It gives us something to do.”

L.J. Bell Music Teacher Don Greene directed the program.

“Things have been wonderful,” he said backstage. “All the groups have done very well. We’ve had lots of attendance. These kids were very prepared and it came off nicely.”

He estimated attendance to be between two and three thousand, though crowds were in and out during the course of the day.