August 2007
Board of Mahoning County Commissioners
We received Green Team Grants of $1360 in 2006 and $2583 in 2007!
Thank you very much for your generous support!
August 2002
Students from Youngstown Schools will be doing a
routine September 1, 2002 with Green Meanie, Leonardo Da Snozzio, Mousetrap,
Fireball and Vacuum in the Gazebo outside the Fine Arts Building at the
Canfield Fair. They will perform
to the "We Have Poipus!" Song every 15 minutes between 4:00-6:00 p.m. There
will also be a Poipus Puppet at the Fair in Educational Hall from August
28 to September 2 as part of The Steel Valley
art Teachers Association display.
After much fun-filled practice and brainstorming
students from Youngstown's
West Elementary School developed and perfected the routine for the
We Have Poipus! Song. There was a performance for West School as part of
the Spring Music Program on May 30, 2002. The routine requires two students
per puppet and a student director. About fifty students practiced and learned
the routine and it was very hard to choose who to use for the performance.
Since everyone couldn't perform for the program, students who didn't get
a chance to perform later went room to room for a second performance. Performances
were done with the students in full view operating the puppets without
the rods and were very successful. The five puppets used were the ones
that will actually perform the We Have Poipus! Song when the production
is complete.
July 13 and 14, 2002 five more of the latest puppets
were on display in Bliss Hall, YSU for
the 2nd Annual Tri-County Young Artists' Expo sponsored by The Board of
Mahoning County Commissioners.
The characters that were on display for the Expo were: Leonardo Da Snozzio
(30 years older), Mousetrap, Prudence (30 years older), Saturina and Venus.
The younger version of Leonardo Da Snozzio was on display as part of the
YSU Arts Fest Childrens's Arts Festival
on July 14.
April 17, 2002 Mousetrap and Mr. Wheatbread were
on display for the Annual "Kids and Community Breakfast" sponsored by Mahoning
County Children Services. Over 200 professionals as well as children who
are winners in a Child Abuse Prevention Poster Contest attend this Breakfast.
The puppets were well received and will attend the Breakfast again next
year!
March 20, 2002 Mousetrap and Mr. Wheatbread were
present for The Steel Valley Art Teachers Association
annual "Tribute to the Arts" Recognition Dinner. Mary Adams, who together
with her students wrote We Have Poipus!, was honored at the Dinner as the
2002 Outstanding Art Educator.
March 3, 2002 Fireball, Vacuum, and Leonardo Da
Snozzio were on display at the Butler Institute of American Art for The
Steel Valley Art Teachers Association Elementary Art Recognition Program.
We hope to have a performance of all three songs from We Have Poipus! for
next year's Elementary Art Recognition Program. The SVATA
Elementary Art Recogniton Program is sponsored by The
Farmers National Bank and is open to all art teachers in Mahoning,
Trumbull and Columbiana Counties regardless of membership in SVATA.
December 2001
We want to thank the North
Eastern Ohio Education Association for the lengthy article and photos
in their Nov/Dec, 2001 News and Views. Two of the Poipus Puppets,
Ellie and Vacuum were on display at the McDonough Museum of Art for NEOEA
Day, October 12, 2001 when they caught the attention of the NEOEA
photographer and publication editor, Rebecca Tarantine.
Not to be outdone, two of the other Poipus
characters made an appearance at the "Christmas at the Lake" Craft Show
in Lake Milton, Ohio on December 8, 2001. The children who attended
the craft show were astonished and delighted with the puppets. A
variety of products promoting We Have Poipus! were for sale
at the craft show as well as free handouts. There were individual
original holiday greeting cards by Michelle M., a 6th grader from Youngstown
City Schools. These cards were also for sale packaged with art supplies
for coloring or painting. CD's and audio cassette tapes of the sound
track were made available for the first time.
September 2001
For the second consecutive year a larger-than-life
puppet from the We Have Poipus! Puppet Show was on display in the
Educational Hall at the 2001 Canfield
Fair. Vacuum made his appearance along with the continuous play
preview to the delight of the many visitors.
The We Have Poipus!
Puppets were also on display at the 1st Annual Tri-County
Young Artist's Expo sponsored by the Board of Mahoning County Commissioners.
The characters that were on display were Mr. Wheatbread, Green Meanie,
Leonardo DaSnozzio, Ellie and Fireball. They were in the Bliss Hall Gallery
during the YSU Summer Festival of the
Arts on July 7 and July 8, 2001.
Contemporary
Issues in Art Education by Yvonne Gaudelius and Peg Speirs
is now available. A chapter titled Interdisciplinarity and Community as
Tools for Art Education and Social Change by Mary Adams explains more about
the We Have Poipus! Puppet Show Project
