Seven art students have put out their own welcome mat at the new Dominion High School, which opens in Sterling in the fall.
The Potomac Falls and Park View high school students are creating a stained glass panel to carry on a tradition that Broad Run High School started in the mid-1990s. The tradition, the brainchild of art teacher Elaine Nunnally, continued at Potomac Falls one year after the school opened in 1997. But instead of stopping at four panels, the panels at Potomac Falls are installed for each graduating class at entrances and windows throughout the building. The same type of project is planned for Dominion High School, though the panels may not be installed with the class years.
"It’s a welcome to anyone who enters the school," said Augusta Dadiego, Potomac Falls art teacher who will be teaching at Dominion in the fall, adding that at the same time, "We’re trying to blend two schools together, so it’s a cooperative project between schools."
At Potomac Falls, level two and three art students create the panels for their senior classes, a project that started with the school’s first senior class in 1999. The panels are located side by side above the school’s entrance, where there is room for eight panels.
SCHOOL BOARD member Candyce Cassell (Sugarland Run) wanted to see the panels at Dominion High School, so she offered to pay for the materials and supplies needed to construct the first panel and asked school principal John Brewer to accept her offer.
"Over the years, I have been inspired by the beautiful stained glass created by students in our other high schools, especially the entry way pieces at Potomac Falls High School," Cassell said, according to a public schools statement.
Cassell, Brewer and teacher advisors Nunnally and Dadiego formed a committee with Potomac Falls and Park View students who will attend Dominion, including Katlyn Dixon, Stephanie Egger, Laura Fender and Christine Park from Park View and Natasha Amirhadji, Julia Dulc and Katherine Schoggen from Potomac Falls.
"THIS IS A NICE PROJECT to bring students together," Brewer said. "Coming to a new school is sometimes a difficult thing for students to do when they started high school somewhere else. This gives students at both schools a chance to be excited about developing something new. … It helps them feel they are part of the school."
By committee vote, Natasha, 14, designed the panel, which will feature the school’s logo, a Titan "T," with the words "Dominion" and Titans" above and below the "T" and stars shooting out from some of the letters. The panel is mostly in black and silver, the school’s color, with accents of red, yellow and blue.
"There’s not going to be a lot of artwork at Dominion at first, and I wanted to make a statement," Amirhadji said. "I don’t think people appreciate the time and effort put into artwork."
This summer, students on the committee will attend workshops to cut the glass pieces for the panel, then foil and solder the pieces together. After school starts, the students will finish the panel for an unveiling at the school’s dedication on Oct. 16. The panel will be placed in the doorway to the main entrance.
"It’s nice to be met at the door by student art," said Nunnally, who chairs the fine arts department at Potomac Falls.