Chester Middle celebrates a century of learning
By Susan Nienow CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Page Dowdy/Chesterfield Observer Chester Middle School students and professional artist David Gill create a mural depicting the Chester community during 1911-1931. The mural and other student work will be unveiled during an open house on May 20.

It was James Copp, retired principal of Chester Middle School, who started the staff and students thinking about how to celebrate the school's centennial in 2011. Dr. Brent Thomas is the new principal, but has been brought up to speed on this five-year multifaceted celebration.

It began with an examination of 1911-1931, the first 20 years of the history and changes in Chester Agricultural High School, explained Chester Middle reading specialist Rebecca Quesenberry. The historical look back is being funded with a $10,000 grant from Partners in the Arts.

While the school changed and was even torn down and replaced at one point, a school has been open at that site for nearly a century. An open house on Sun., May 20, at 2 p.m. in the school's auditorium will showcase the work done this year for the first phase of the examination.

Chester Middle Open House Chester Middle School will unveil a mural and other student work from the first year of a five-year project called, "Celebrating Chester's Enduring Values Through a Century of Change," on Sun., May 20, at 2 p.m. in the school's auditorium. The project celebrates 100 years of learning at the site of Chester Middle.

One of the goals of the examination, which is called "Celebrating Chester's Enduring Values Through a Century of Change," is for students to learn an appreciation of their community's lasting values of family, religion, education, democracy and pride in the community.

The centerpiece of the open house is the unveiling of a mural depicting the Chester community during the period from 1911- 1931. A historical team of last year's seventhgrade social studies students, teachers, the department head and librarians researched the school, Chester landmarks, churches, local and even world events during those years. A design team planned the mural. The teams worked after school most of the year to get everything done, noted Quesenberry.

Professional artist David Gill helped the design team transfer their plans to the wall, mixing colors and adding highlights. "It's so amazing to see the result of their work," said art teacher Sheree Zimmerman.

Partners of the Arts works to integrate the visual and performing arts into the K-12 curriculum. The school used the grant to hire Gill, who taught at the school before he turned to his art full time. He will continue to work with the students over the next four years, though the grant only covered the first year. The grant was also used to bring a choreographer and other experts to the school to teach the students the musical heritage for those years.

This year's historical team is currently wrapping up research on 1931-1951 for the next phase of the project. The research will form the basis for the work, which will continue next year on the third and fourth decades. A mural is planned for each 20-year period.

Interdisciplinary projects

The examination stretches well beyond just artwork. Students from the eighth-grade journalism class took a creative journaling workshop and helped compile a scrapbook/journal of the two decades currently being studied. Photography classes looked at architectural photography and photographed Chester's historical buildings.

The school's band performed a concert and completed a workshop by Kim and Jimbo Cary, which looked at the American musical heritage during the time when jazz was born. Orchestra students had a workshop conducted by the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and the chorus performed the musical "Charleston" from the 1920s and songs from that time during a Veteran's Day program.

"Watching the kids practice the Charleston was one of the highlights of the year," said Quesenberry.