WESTFIELD — Westfield High School students recently had the opportunity to explore the enduring connection between the power of sound and the joy of art thanks to a new scholarship program held under the direction of HearingLife.
HearingLife, a nationwide chain that has been operating out of its Westfield location for the past five years, provides hearing aids and other forms of care to patients with varying degrees of auditory challenges.
“Sound is something that most of us take for granted,” said Carol McIntyre, who serves as the Chief Marketing Officer for HearingLife. “When we came up with the idea of creating an art project for our local student artists, we challenged them to create a piece that represented what the beauty of sound might mean to them.”
Westfield students Devan Patel, Hannah Plummer, Tate Sun, Nana Maldonado, Al Faitoute, Ava Schaefer, Owen Singman, Jara Gelfand, Isabelle Shih, Milo Aitken, Chloe Pinkowski, Nalyssa Reyes and Sophia Basaldua rose to the challenge with an array of paintings designed to represent personal experiences. Some chose nature themes, like the song of a bird or the rush of a gushing stream, while others focused their attention on music, private moments and expression. Three students – Ms. Basaldua, Ms. Reyes and Ms. Pinkowski – were selected as the winner’s of HearingLife’s inaugural competition and were awarded first, second and third place scholarships (valued at $1,500, $1,000 and $500) respectively.
“Initially, we only planned to give out two scholarships, but we were so absolutely blown away by what the students turned in that we had to give out a third,” Ms. McIntyre said. “We had no idea that we would get this kind of response. These students are all incredibly talented.”
Ms. Basaldua, a junior at Westfield High School, submitted a piece that depicts a young man riding a crowded subway train, looking calm and collected despite the noise around him.
“I love the sounds of the city,” she said. “It’s everywhere — you can get lost in it. I tried to capture that through themotionandmovementofthispiece.”
All 13 submissions will be left on display at HearingLife for a period of one year.
“We started out with this big blank wall, and now we have these beautiful pieces that connect us to the community,” Ms. McIntyre said. “This turned out to be an incredible experience for all of us.”
