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Health & Fitness

Designer Shoes Contest Winner Could Bring $50,000 to Middletown Schools

Middletown High School South has been selected as one of the top 50 high schools, from among 1,500 schools in the United States, competing in the Vans Custom Culture Contest.

Middletown High School South has been selected as one of the top 50 high schools, from among 1,500 schools in the United States, competing in the Vans Custom Culture Contest, a nationwide art contest, sponsored by the Vans® Inc. (Vans). Vans is a shoe company known for their artistic custom- designed shoes. These semi-finalists now compete for a $50,000 award for their school’s art department. The public will vote on-line at the Vann Custom Culture Contest
website at http://www.vans.com/customculture/vote/ through May 13 to choose the top five finalists.

Student artists from the five finalist schools will be flown to New York City for three days of activities from June 10 through June 12. The final winner will be decided by a surprise group of celebrity judges to be announced. Additionally, Vans will donate $4,000 to each of the four runners up, and Journeys, (a retail store) will donate $10,000 to the school with the best pair of “local flavor” themed shoes.

Middletown High School South’s AP Studio Art Class, (Taylor Franzreb, Carissa Gray, Meghan Heidelberg, Amy Mader, Jacqueline Marron, Nina Mitarotondo, Kate Spence, Will Stallmeyer) and an Art 1 student (Jesse Price) submitted four shoe designs. Each pair of shoes represented one of the four required themes: Action Sports (defined as boards and bikes, not stick and ball) Art, Music, and Local Flavor (inspired by your surrounding community, city or state). The students chose for their designs: Action Sports: paddle boarding; Art: zombies; Music: jazz; the Local Flavor design was inspired by Superstorm Sandy and the Jersey Shore. 

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Each of the shoes had a primary artist, but the students worked collaboratively in the creative process and all contributed to achieve their goal. Students were introduced to the project in February so that they could start thinking about, discussing and sketching their design ideas with the bulk of their work taking place during the month of March.

Middletown High School Art teacher Christen Tummillo, stated “The students worked feverishly together painting soles, creating logos, touching up spots and adding finishing touches. It really was amazing to see the group work together so selflessly, and show such support for each other throughout this endeavor.”

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Of the Sandy inspired shoe design primary artist Taylor Franzreb explained,” The storm destroyed parts of our town. Using paint we attempted to represent how the storm impacted our everyday lives while preserving our favorite memories of the shore. Though our town was permanently changed from Sandy, it unified us and brought us together to restore and rebuild our Jersey shore.”

The public is welcome to cast their vote for the best shoe design in each of five regions by visiting http://www.vans.com/customculture/vote/ through May 13. 

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