Young artists show their talents

Hundreds of parents and teachers from across the Berkeley County drove to Goose Creek High School last Thursday to see 400 students show their talents.

It was the finale of the county’s Special Talented and Enrichment Program’s Summer Fine Arts Camp, also known as STEP.

Students filled the library with art, put on plays, sang, played instruments including steel drums, danced and entertained with handmade marionettes.

“I’m telling you, these kids are amazing,” said Linda Albertson, who drove from Jamestown with her grandson, Dustin Nalasco, a sixth-grader at Macedonia Middle School who displayed his art.

Lakesha Pringle drove her two sons from Pineville every day. Talbert Mustapher, an eighth-grader at Cross High School, displayed a folding TV tray painted like Picasso’s “Man With a Guitar.” Tyrell Mustapher, a sixth-grader at Cross Elementary, made a marionette.

Kylie Coldrin, a fifth-grader at Berkeley Intermediate, also made a marionette. She said she especially liked the opportunity to meet other artistic students.

“You get to find kids who are like you, and you have things to talk about,” she said.

Classes included dance, guitar, chorus, band, orchestra, drama, puppetry, marionettes, improvisational jazz, taiko and steel drumming, painting, drawing, sculpture, design, clay, printmaking, fused glass and batik.

The program was free to qualified students rising to grades 4-9.

Reach Dave Munday at 937-5553.