On February 11, 2016 Kean University held an exhibit in tribute to the United States soldiers who liberated Nazi concentration camps and its victims. The exhibit displayed pieces from students ranging from middle school to college level. Colonia High School was one of the participants of the gallery which contributed a total of thirteen ceramics and graphic design pieces to the exhibit.
Mrs. Rosemarie Singalewitch who conducted both the ceramics and graphic design class originally presented the Holocaust liberation project as an assignment. The ceramics students were shown three videos of American soldiers who not only fought in battle during World War II but also went on liberation missions. Where they encountered the malnourished and skeleton like people who were often left to perish by S.S Officers in the concentration camps. After viewing each video twice the students were required to write a one page summary giving their perspective on how the soldiers may have interpreted what they saw, smelled, felt and heard upon arriving at concentration camps and assisting the Jewish people. From each individual summary Singalewitch was able to express what the focal point of each of the student’s project should be.
The students were then given two weeks to sketch, construct and glaze their pieces. They were urged to be as self-governing as possible during the construction phase of developing their pieces and were encouraged to mold their design efficiently and precisely. Following the construction of each piece they were ready to be under glazed The process of under glazing took a period of two days and was then placed back in the kiln. After being fired the process of glazing occurred and yet again the pieces were in the kiln roasting to perfection. After being placed in a 1900 degree oven two times the pieces were completed.
Singalewitch was amazed with her students work, “dumbfounded by how much emotion the students pieces evoked from me, it was difficult for me to decide which pieces of art from both graphic design and ceramics would be sent to Kean University.” As a result she decided to gather the staff from the art department to use the democratic process and determine which pieces would be sent to Kean. After eliminating several pieces Singalewitch was left with 13 that she would send to Kean University. Ultimately it took her by surprise that Kean not only accepted all of the pieces but they also asked the students whose art was show cased to donate their work. Each student willingly donated their pieces which brought Singalewitch to tears, prideful in the fact that her students achieved such success.
According to Anthony Hatzlhoffer, a student who participated and contributed a piece in the exhibit explained that he expected that there would be numerous people viewing his piece so he was not nervous. “At first I was more concerned about how people would interpret my piece because it was a little bit different, it was an exact representation of a World War II propaganda poster.” Hatzlhoffer was very detailed in explaining the process of construction and the time given to complete his piece. which was minimal considering how much he was able achieve. He mentioned that “It was definitely a challenge because even with the aspect in mind I completely took the image and redrew it by hand. I took the original poster redrew the whole thing, colored it, and edited it which involved deleting pixels that may have made the image look unrealistic.” Hatzlhoffer altered his project three times before he felt one hundred percent confident in his piece.
