Kutztown School District’s Festival of the Arts is now expanding into a fashion show involving middle school, high school and university students.
“This is our third year. Very similar to what Brandywine has done. Last year we were part of Brandywine’s Oz. We’ve fulfilled Sue Oswald’s obligation and now I feel it’s important to continue this,” said Kutztown Middle School art teacher Kris Tuerk.
Tuerk explained that the fashion show is based off of Learning By Design, which is a design challenge that is state wide, “To up cycle, recycle, and repurpose materials to make fashion.”
“It’s not about the dress. It’s about costumes, it’s about characters from a book, a favorite gamer,” she said. “It’s just a matter of finding a design team; it can be individuals or a group of four.”
April 11 is the Fashion Show with three categories. Those who can participate are Kutztown University student entry level, high school entry level and middle school entry level.
“We’ll have a wide scope (of designs),” said Tuerk. “The whole purpose is to raise money for the arts. Instead of doing the Festival of the Arts, now we’re going to do a fashion show.”
The KU Honors Club and Art Club will host a Coffee House and Art Auction for which University students auction their artwork. The artist receives 60 percent of the sales and 40 percent goes to Kutztown Festival of the Arts Fashion Show.
The KU Art Education Crafts Department has two classes of University students working one-on-one with middle school students to create and design the space setup and creating the trophies all out of recycled materials, said Tuerk. Also involved is the University recycling club SPARK.
“As much as we can get to make this a community-wide event is what we’re trying to do,” said Tuerk.