Artists of the Month 2024-2025
Hanming “Joy” Xu ’27
Joy is not only a talented artist, but a hard worker. She is always prepared and open to trying out new ideas. Moreover, her recent work for AP 2D design exemplifies her growing skills, and we selected her work to represent WMA for the 2025 Pioneer Valley High School Biennial. Though this was not a competition, Joy’s work was very well received by students and teachers attending. Congratulations Joy!
Thao “Hailey” Pham ’26
Hailey is attentive, thoughtful and a deep thinker. Her work from the beginning of the year shows vision and purpose. Hailey continues to grow as an artist with her thematic concerns for the environment in meticulous work employing traditional materials, such as acrylic, charcoal and pencil as well as non-traditional materials such as recyclable plastics. Congratulations Hailey!
Joseph Prickett '27, Academy Players - lighting/technical support, with Michael Dziura
Ben Gamba '27, Academy Players - actor, with Matthew Rafala
Ga Minh Tran '26
Lily Ricci '26 and Nia Johnson '28
Dance
Maddie Goodwin '25
Theater
Ziyu "Brandy" Chen '27
Music
Avah MacDonald '27
Theater
Avah took on the task of playing Harry, the grumpy villain in "Night of the Living Dead Live," and she managed to turn him into one of the funniest, most likeable characters in the show. Her dedication to this production was obvious from the start; she not only played her character to the fullest, but she also took extra time out of her busy schedule to record rehearsal tracks of the final musical number in order to help her castmates bring things to the next level. Avah has proven herself to be a team player and a professional.
Avah’s contribution to the Music Department has been impactful as well. Avah has brought significant musical contributions to WMA in her short time here. She has sung the National Anthem at a home game, sung a solo at morning meeting, sings in choir and is looking forward to singing a solo in our upcoming Luminations Show. Avah also plays violin which we heard in our Musical Brunch and she is a strong contributor within our school string ensemble.
Rebecca Kakule '25
Ceramics
Rebecca is recognized for her work in ceramics this month for being attentive and on time with assignments, presenting a good understanding when working with clay in the building process and high attention to detail and overall quality of the final appearance of her pieces. Following through with correct ceramic terminology and using information from artist presentations to incorporate into discussion and use in the studio. Rebecca created a very interesting cubist style mask for the slab building project and creatively used colored glazes as well as clear gloss glaze to achieve her final result. For the final memorabilia project, Rebecca chose a very personal item, a childhood blanket, to create a bit of a self portrait. She used varied handbuilding techniques and combined underglaze and gloss glaze to achieve the results she envisioned. Overall great job Rebecca.
But ceramics is not Rebecca’s only artist pursuit.
Rebecca is a senior leader in choir helping to shape and decide programming and serving as a role model for all student members. Rebecca's exceptional musical talent and leadership have significantly contributed to our choir's success and community spirit. She has already sung the National anthem at a home game, and will be singing a special solo in our upcoming Luminations Show. Her leadership, dedication, and passion for music inspire all of us to strive for excellence.
In the Fall play, Rebecca made it clear in the audition process which character she wanted to play, and she made my decision to cast her in this role very easy. She had the unenviable job of playing a character in a catatonic state, but she managed to find the nuances and humanity within the narrow parameters she was given. She was often the funniest character on stage, utilizing simple gestures and comic timing to get the most out of her performance.
Gia Khang "Kevin" Pham '26
AP 2D artwork
Yunchang "Daniel" Hur '25
