Central Massachusetts Collaborative Students Shine in School’s 2nd Annual Art Showcase

Students from the Central Massachusetts Collaborative made sculptures, desktop art and painted skateboards. (Photo Courtesy Central Massachusetts Collaborative)

WORCESTER — Executive Director Susan Farrell is pleased to share that the Central Massachusetts Collaborative held a successful Art Showcase for the second year in a row, inviting families to the school on Wednesday, May 21, to view outstanding student artwork and enjoy live musical performances.

The school’s main hallway was lined with art displays, showing off the students’ work, including canvases, 3-D models, clay sculptures, paintings, decoupaged furniture, sketches and masks. The night concluded with a mini concert, featuring several solo performances and a group sing-along, earning cheers from a crowd of parents and caregivers.

The second annual Art Showcase culminated a year of arts education, led by art teachers April Estabrooks, Abbey Cashman and Kevin McKee and music teacher Matthew Sowersby.

The Central Massachusetts Collaborative, located at 14 New Bond St. in Worcester, is a public day school that employs more than 160 full-time dedicated employees and serves more than 350 students ages 5 through 21 who need specialized services. The collaborative, founded in 1975, provides for the needs of three member districts: Webster Public Schools, Worcester Public Schools and Oxford Public Schools.

Executive Director Farrell said it was outstanding to meet with so many families, allowing them to see firsthand just how much of a difference the Central Massachusetts Collaborative has made in their children’s lives.

“It’s good for parents to see that their children are doing so well here,” Farrell said. “One parent told me that she really wondered whether this was the right place for her child. But then she said to me, ‘Watching this was amazing. He has friends here. This is such a good place for him to learn. I’ve heard good things, but seeing it in person touched my heart.’ What more could we want than for a student to feel like they belong and to provide the kind of education that works well for them?”

A 19-year-old student who played guitar in front of the crowd with Sowersby later approached Farrell with similar sentiments.

“This is the only school that I’ve ever really fit into,” said Harrison, 19, who is graduating soon. “I remember you opened the door for me. So, thank you for that as well.”

Sowersby, who’s been a teacher for the Central Massachusetts Collaborative since 2017, said the school’s music education program builds confidence in students.

“A lot of them initially struggle with believing in themselves and that they can be good at something,” Sowersby said. “This might be the first place where they’re able to build up a sense of confidence within themselves and to get in touch with their creative side. It’s vitally important. It’s awesome. They need it for their social, emotional and mental health.”

The school’s music and arts programs empower students to tap into their creativity and work together constructively.

“They’re able to work with each other in a healthy way here, developing good social bonds with people who have like interests,” Sowersby said. “I’ve seen a lot of positive interactions as they share a song, like ‘Rhiannon’ by Fleetwood Mac, and work on it with each other. Another one hears it and says, ‘That’s really cool, I like that.’ It just kind of spreads like fire. It’s nice to see that camaraderie that’s being built within these peer groups where, normally, I don’t think that that would be happening.”

April Estabrooks, in her third year as an art teacher, working with students in the Hartwell and Thrive programs, called the Art Showcase “amazing,” crediting the small classrooms and special attention that the Central Massachusetts Collaborative is able to give to its pupils. Estabrooks said her biggest class is just 11 students.

“There’s a nice community feel here,” Estabrooks said. “The adults really get to work together, as far as the teachers and paraprofessionals. You have a bunch of creative people here working together to come up with solutions to help students who were having a hard time before this.”

Estabrooks said the emphasis on arts education at Central Massachusetts Collaborative helps students develop skills and accomplish things that they thought they couldn’t do. And subjects that are more difficult, like science, are integrated into art to make it easier to grasp for students.

“It can help them with other skills. Holding a paint brush may help them with holding pencils, so it can support writing,” Estabrooks said. “All of those aspects of the creative mind help us to tap into other parts of our brain that we’re not aware of, and it helps to create a sense of calm. Some kids find it very calming. So, for them, it’s this wonderful release. And that helps lower stress for those who have more trouble doing math or science. But while we’re doing art, we can bring in some of the math, science or even English, even if it’s not the main part.”

Abbey Cashman, in her first year as an art teacher, worked with students on an unconventional art project: drawing images onto used and broken desks. The idea was to take the impulse some students might have to put graffiti on a desk, and to better develop their artistic abilities, using paint markers and Sharpies. One of the “graffiti desks” was covered in symbols, including flowers, a spaceship, a slice of pizza, a pair of headphones, a yin-yang, a compass, a love letter, a paper sailboat and a pencil.

“They’re learning from me, but I feel like I’m learning from them,” Cashman said. “I really feel like we’ve come a long way from the start of this art project. We started off with bare bones, bare drawings, and I was kind of trying to figure out their style. From there, we went to splatter paint and the graffiti styles. We worked with different mediums. There are oil pastels on there, watercolor and then your basic graphite and charcoal, whereas in the beginning we were just using pencils and scribbling on notebooks. So, we have come a long way.”

Executive Director Farrell thanked all the parents who came out to see the creative work their students have accomplished, as well as all the teachers and staff who have helped guide them along the way.

“We’re so grateful to have everyone out to celebrate the artistic development of our students who have found a home at the Central Massachusetts Collaborative,” Farrell said. “This was an incredible showcase of the creativity of our very talented students, demonstrating their growth under the guidance of our amazing teachers and staff. We look forward to continuing our mission of providing a quality education to all of our students by developing programs that fit their individual needs, allow them to flourish in a safe, welcoming, supportive environment.”

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Board Certified Behavior Analyst Zack Ferguson, left, and teacher Jean Clancy, right, stand by the “Art by Science” table at the second annual Art Showcase. (Photo Courtesy Central Massachusetts Collaborative)

A teacher worked with students at a bracelet-making station during the second annual Art Showcase held by the Central Massachusetts Collaborative. (Photo Courtesy Central Massachusetts Collaborative)

Sculptures created by students at the Central Massachusetts Collaborative. (Photo Courtesy Central Massachusetts Collaborative)

Students in the Thrive program at the Central Massachusetts Collaborative experimented with mixing colors while painting alligators in artwork that was displayed during the second annual Art Showcase. (Photo Courtesy Central Massachusetts Collaborative)

Art teacher Abbey Cashman has provided art instruction to students in the Central MA Academy programs, Woodward Day and Recovery High School. They created paintings, made desktop graffiti and painted on skateboards. (Photo Courtesy Central Massachusetts Collaborative)

Art teacher April Estabrooks worked with students in the Thrive program on mixing colors and designs. (Photo Courtesy Central Massachusetts Collaborative)

One student painted a panda bear as part of the second annual Art Showcase. (Photo Courtesy Central Massachusetts Collaborative)