Blacklight Gallery at Valley Forge Elementary School
Published 8:55 am Monday, May 20, 2019
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Valley Forge Elementary School's art teacher Rachael Turbyfill at the entrance of the Ocean Blacklight Gallery.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Students painted self-portraits as scuba divers and ocean explorers.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Paper mache fish were hung from the ceiling to make them look like the are swimming.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Fishes of all sizes were on display at the Ocean Blacklight Gallery.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Seahorses on display at the Ocean Blacklight Gallery.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Students had a variety of topics for their Science Fair projects.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf First place winning Science Fair project.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Science Fair projects on display.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Artwork that Valley Forge students worked on throughout the year.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Many of the students drawings were on display at the Valley Forge Elementary School's Ocean Blacklight Gallery.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Valley Forge Elementary School's artist of the month.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf A look inside of Valley Forge Elementary's Ocean Blacklight Gallery.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Artwork by the studnets show the different species that you will find in the ocean.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Paper mache art was placed on sticks and table to look like the the ocean floor.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf A lonely Seahorses at the gallery.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Artwork of sand castles.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf Scuba divers at the art gallery.
Star Photo/Delaney Scalf A spool of Jelly fish at the art gallery.
Valley Forge Elementary art teacher Rachael Turbyfill had an idea to create an aquarium-themed art show this year with her k-5 students. She said she knew all grades would cover this topic in their classroom at some point during the school year.
“Neon colors are very popular with the students. Therefore, I knew I wanted to incorporate this color scheme into their artwork as well,” Turbyfill said. “I scoured Pinterest and consulted other art teachers online from various parts of the country to get additional ideas for materials we could use in our art show.”
Turbyfill discovered that highlighters, certain coloring pencils, tonic water (mixed with watercolors), and some types of paper would also work under the black lights. Starting in December, the students began to work on their underwater themed habitat that would feature the black lights and bright fluorescent paint. Students created jellyfish, seahorses, and paper mache fish. They painted self-portraits as scuba divers and ocean explorers. The students discovered how important color is to their artwork and how to apply it in a meaningful way. Science Fair projects and artwork were also displayed in the hallways of the school.
