Circles of Life: Lincoln High students learn about teamwork through shared art project

February 4, 2025

Collaboration came in the form of circles and spirals for Lincoln High School students like KayMarie and Quaedyn this winter.
 
Members of Lincoln High’s Art 1, Drawing 1 and Unified Art classes shared their imaginations as part of a large project in the school’s media center. Worldwide artist Sonja Hinrichsen helped them create drawings full of circular shapes on a long banner. Students could add new spirals to existing images or make lines denser with pens, but they were not allowed to place any straight lines on the paper.
 
One of the project’s goals was to help students learn the value of teamwork and experience the joy of accomplishing something together. It was also designed to teach them about focusing on a task and realizing how perseverance can pay off. Their artwork was later displayed at Constellation Studios in downtown Lincoln.
 
KayMarie and Quaedyn added their ideas to the banner in their seventh-period Art 1 class. Both said it was calming to figure out where to draw on the paper and how to best go about their job.
 
“I just like how we can create anything with circles on the paper and kind of go wild with it,” KayMarie said. “It’s been nice.”
 
“I’ve enjoyed this,” Quaedyn said. “It’s been fun.”

 
Art teacher Lindsey Weber joined her students in the circle-making experience on the floor. Some Links filled in spots along the edges of the rectangular banner, and others took off their shoes and drew in the middle of the canvas.
 
Weber said she hoped the project would help the teenagers stretch their attention spans. She said learning how to concentrate on something for an extended period of time would benefit them in many ways. The skill is important for art projects, other academic subjects and future work environments.
 
“It’s hard for them to focus on one thing for an hour, but I think it’s helping them work through that restlessness,” Weber said. “I think that’s really important.”

 
Hinrichsen spent the morning overseeing Lincoln High’s portion of the project. She was pleased to watch the Links follow her instructions in their class periods.
 
“I felt they were engaged,” Hinrichsen said. “They were all very focused. You know, if you have a class of 30-something kids there will always be a few who will sit at the side and not want to participate, but it was very few, actually. Most of them got into it, which was nice.”
 
KayMarie is exploring the possibility of attending art school when she graduates from Lincoln High. She said it was interesting to work on a piece of abstract art instead of drawing a person, object or nature scene.
 
“I just feel like there are so many traditional modern-day artists, but there’s not as many abstract artists as there used to be,” KayMarie said. “I feel like I want to bring that back in my own kind of way.”
 
Hinrichsen said unlocking that type of creative mindset was critical for budding artists. It also provided lessons that the Links could carry with them beyond art classes. Learning to think in new ways could help them write imaginative stories, figure out solutions to engineering problems and complete scientific studies in the future.
 
“Abstract art is something that a lot of times people don’t know so much about or don’t tap into that easily, and I think this taught them that this could be interesting too,” Hinrichsen said. “It doesn’t need to be an object or something specific. I’m hoping they gain that part of it from this.”

 
Hinrichsen earned degrees from the Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart, Germany, in both 1997 and 1998, and she earned a master’s degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2001. She has held artist residencies in the United States, Ireland, Australia, Germany, Iceland, Taiwan, Finland, Italy, The Netherlands, Canada, China, Spain, Estonia, Czech Republic and Poland.
 
Hinrichsen’s art has been displayed in multiple museums and galleries, and she has led participatory “Snow Drawings” events in communities throughout the world. Groups of people make large circles and spirals in the snow for the “Snow Drawings” art pieces, which is a similar concept to the Lincoln High art project.
 
Hinrichsen spent the past semester studying ceramics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She said LPS students are fortunate to live in a city where art is valued both at school and community levels.
 
“Here, it’s not an art desert, which is really great to see,” Hinrichsen said. “There is stuff going on in Lincoln.”
 
Lincoln High students completed their portion of the project during the afternoon and sent their work to Hinrichsen. UNL students formed two large banners of circular drawings for their class assignment on the same day. The high school and college banners were later combined into one giant artwork for the public to view at Constellation Studios.
 
Hinrichsen said she hoped the project helped the Links discover the joy of working together toward a common goal.
 
“Nowadays they are always on their devices,” Hinrichsen said. “To me, this is something where you kind of get off of that and you go into a whole different space, which is more yourself while being in the community at the same time.”
 
Visit home.lps.org/art to learn more about the wide variety of art programs available for LPS students.
 
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