Arts event dedicated to former principal

Shortly after becoming the Oakwood-Windsor Elementary School principal in 1998, the late Dr. Alice Sheehan began to demonstrate her commitment to the visual and performing arts.

Over time she introduced classes in violin and clogging and added a news show that she and kids moderated.

Oakwood-Windsor will present a Night of the Arts event at the school on Thursday, April 28 at 6 p.m., an event that will be dedicated to Sheehan, who died in 2010.

"This school was Alice's heart," said Linda Haines, a teaching assistant. "She envisioned so much for this school, the students and their families. Dr. Sheehan believed in students learning, and it was very important to her to have great teachers here to peak the students' interest in the arts."

All former students and others who knew or worked with Sheehan are invited to the arts event. Sheehan's husband Jim, daughter Erin Boyleston and son Jimmy Sheehan will join other family members there.

"I was touched by the idea they would dedicate this to Alice," said Jim. "She wanted to engage the kids in any way she could in this rural school and community. The faculty and staff helped create a school family that supported and enriched the kids."

Alice Sheehan rounded up enough tiny violins to start a class more than 10 years ago. Among the first students was kindergartner Amy Ciravolo. The youngster kept playing, and, during her fourth-grade year, the guest instructor was violinist Laura Tomlin, who operates the Carolina Strings Academy.

Ciravolo, now an Aiken High junior and also an accomplished visual artist, continues to study with Tomlin and is a member of the Aiken Youth Orchestra. She and Tomlin will perform a duet at the Night of the Arts event.

"Everybody loved Dr. Sheehan," said Ciravolo. "The program at Oakwood-Windsor is basically what got me into music. I heard all the melodies and harmonies and actually got into classical music and began to appreciate it."

The program will have a 1950s and '60s theme, said music teacher Denise Barnhardt, including "Jailhouse Rock" and some Beach Boys songs. First-graders will perform and dance to "Twist and Shout." Barnhardt hopes to use puppets as narrators, another activity that Sheehan brought to the school.

When Boyleston was growing up, she recalls Sheehan taking her and her three siblings to any live theater performance she could find.

"My mother wanted to make sure we were exposed to arts and music and to books in the library," Boyleston said. "That's what she tried to bring to the kids at Oakwood-Windsor. She purchased a lot of those violins out of her own pocket."

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.