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On January 29-30, 2025, the Westridge Arts Departments are joining forces to host the first annual WestFest arts festival, an extension of the Winter Showcase from previous years, which was solely theatre performances. It was expanded to create a festival that connects many art forms, whilst shining a light on each one individually.
WestFest provides students with an opportunity to pursue their own artistic inspirations and share them with others. Any Upper School student who wants to can participate, regardless of their current art class. Submissions can be any kind of art and do not need to be connected to a specific class.
Submission forms were released on October 28 and are due December 1, giving students around a month to complete. Time limits for performances are three minutes for solo pieces and five minutes for group performances, while visual art will be hung in the gallery. The festival will be two days long, and tickets will be free. Currently, the logistics are being finalized. Organizers are still determining the best way for audiences to navigate the event, and further details will be released in the coming weeks.
Initial student reaction seems largely positive. Layla R. ’26 said, “I’ve done the Winter Showcase every year, and so I’m excited to see what other genres of art bring to the table.”
(Olivia P.)
The theme for this year’s WestFest is depARTure. Director of Theatre Mr. Brandon Kruhm, who has played a major role in organizing WestFest, said, “A lot of us liked that it had the word art in it… when I think of departure, I think of the beginning of a journey.”
Ms. Rachel Counihan, Middle and Upper School Music teacher, said, “I love that the theme is open to interpretation.”
Much of WestFest is not incorporated into class curricula because, as Ms. Shannon Keller, Upper School Art Teacher of multiple classes said, “The idea behind WestFest is that it’s wholly student-driven, and that’s why we don’t want to necessarily have that be a part of a class.” However, all art teachers are encouraging their students to participate and offering guidance for anyone who is planning on submitting. Teacher support for specific submissions is being widely offered across all departments.
“I’m here just to hear proposals for all vocal and orchestral entries or instrumental music entries, along with Ms. Epps,” said Ms. Counihan. “I’m more than happy to hear any submissions, but this is mainly a student-run thing, so I’m here just to be a sounding board for ideas and support.”
Some teachers are more directly including WestFest in their class program. The Acting 1 class is preparing various scenes for the festival, but the process is slightly different. “It has more student input,” said Middle and Upper School Theatre teacher Ms. Julia Davis.
Apart from the theme, everything else is planned and ultimately decided by the students. “I’m bringing some [optional] material in. I’m open, and I want everyone to pick material that resonates with them,” said Ms. Davis. Once the material is selected, the class will work on all the scenes and add points of view.
In the dance department, students will create pieces in class. Dance Teacher Ms. Jackie Lewis spoke about tying the theme into the dances. “All of the songs have something to do with leaving a place, going somewhere else, or making a different choice in life,” she said.
WestFest is actually not a new concept; the art departments have been conceptualizing and toying with the idea for four years. Historically, the Winter Showcase was a regular production, much like the Fall Play, but it happened in the Black Box instead of the PAC stage. The idea for WestFest was originally introduced during late quarantine as an online Fall Festival where students could submit a scene idea or design project and present it on Zoom. When school resumed in-person, the theatre department shifted to the Winter Showcase. The Winter Showcase allowed for more student leadership and creative freedom, such as allowing students to submit their own ideas, with a focus on theatre. However, the hope was always for it to develop into a multidisciplinary event, and this year that is finally happening.
In the Spring of 2024, ASB Arts Chair Isa H. ’26, who was in the theatre production class at the time, wrote a pitch about why the Winter Showcase should include other art forms. The pitch was for an assignment to create a proposal for something to change or add to the Winter Showcase. “I believe interdisciplinary art is really important,” they said. Since this aligned with what the department was already discussing, Mr. Kruhm took the pitch to the rest of the arts department.
The department finally implemented WestFest, and it was officially announced in late September via an email from Mr. Kruhm and was followed by an informational session on September 29.
According to Upper School Arts Teacher Mr. David Prince, WestFest provides a unique interdisciplinary opportunity. “When we see all the work up, we’re going to see the ways that art is like an interdisciplinary activity,” he said. “All these genres have similarities, and it’ll be fun to see them next to each other. That’s something that we haven’t really seen on campus.”
