Record player company Crosley has recently hosted a contest where Kentucky high school art departments get to design their own Crosley Cruiser and submit it for the Internet to vote on. There are 25 high schools across the Bluegrass participating in the contest, and one of them is Adair County.
Adair County High School art teacher, Cayce Davenport, is ecstatic to have her students be part of this contest, saying, “Any chance we get to show off what our kids can do in these little forgotten pockets of the world, that’s special. And (my students) are special and I love any chance I get to brag on my kids… I am excited to have way more people see what my babies can do and what other kids can do.”
The Adair County art students’ record player is, like the others in the contest, an homage to all things Kentucky. The interior design is a painting of Mammoth Cave with stalactites and a river, and the exterior shows a gathering of “wildlife critters” (as Mrs. Davenport refers to them) sitting around a campfire singing and playing instruments. The sides of the record player show Adair County’s name with sports memorabilia (a basketball, a water bottle, and a pair of Air Jordan 1s), while another side shows a Louisville Slugger baseball bat.
The designs came about from a brainstorming session with Mrs. Davenport’s students. “We did this little thing where I had them close their eyes. (Art is) a visual thing, but the main thing is sound. We had some really interesting things that just didn’t make it in. We had one kid say, ‘I love the sound of a tire going down a gravel road.’ It was a good little brain exercise. They just didn’t all make it into the final product. So I told the kids to just keep in their little artist bag of tricks.”
Five winners will be selected by way of online voting. The runners-up will receive $500, while the top spot will walk away with $2,500. The money will be used by the school’s art department to purchase supplies for their students.
“We will get the best iPad pro,” Mrs. Davenport laughed while musing on what her class would do with the winnings. She initially had planned to buy one years ago but, “I pumped the brakes on buying anything. This was right before COVID hit. So, I was like, ‘Okay, let’s see what the Chromebooks do.’”
However, for the purposes of drawing and creating, the Chromebooks purchased for remote learning during the pandemic were insufficient. For digital art, this makes things difficult as not every child has an iPad and Mrs. Davenport can only loan her own personal device to one person at a time.
“We’re doing fine, we’re doing great,” she stressed, though said that the ability to buy a class iPad with the winnings would go a long way.
However, what she wants most is for the children in her class to feel recognized. Columbia sits on the edge of Appalachia. It is a small, rural town and winning a major contest like this would show her students that artists can come from anywhere.
“I know validation is great and all but after you work so hard in a small area like this, you don’t have that many outlets to get kids’ stuff out there. It’s like, ‘See? You matter.’ I tell them (their art) is good and sometimes they don’t believe me… It’s not just for others. It’s for them and their own little hearts and minds,’ Mrs. Davenport stated.
Today, Thursday, is when the winners will be chosen. You can check out Adair County Community Voice on social media and our website www.adairvoice.com to find out who won.
By Kenley Godby
kenley@adairvoice.com
