More than 500 people attended the museum’s Wild Lights Community Night and L.P. Quinn Elementary student art show, according to the center’s Deputy Director Hillarie Logan-Dechene, who organized the event.

In addition to viewing the student art and walking the Wild Lights — a nighttime lights display that illuminates the woods along the Wild Center’s trails — attendees were also invited to meet and learn about a number of Tupper Lake community organizations who had set up tables as part of the event.

Those included the Tupper Lake Rotary Club, Tupper Lake History Museum, Tupper Lake Public Library, State Police, Tupper Lake Volunteer Rescue Squad, Tupper Trails Group and the Tupper Lake Food Pantry. Logan-Dechene said the art show and community event created the perfect opportunity for the groups to showcase themselves.

“This is a time when all of these families are here,” she said. “What better time is there to have some of the organizations in the community that serve the community so well to demonstrate and table and tell a little more about what they do when we have this great concentration of community members here.”

Local fish and other wildlife were popular themes at the L.P. Quinn Elementary School’s art show held at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

Logan-Dechene, who has been with the Wild Center for 15 years, said making the entire event free helped make it accessible for all, driving the large turnout in a community of a few thousand residents.

“We wanted everybody to just have a nice, fun night in the middle of winter,” she said. “And just celebrate all of the great things that Tupper has to offer.”

Logan-Dechene said she was proud of the community engagement with Friday’s event, adding much of it was inspired by the community’s collaboration around last year’s total solar eclipse. She said having strong community support helps the Wild Center to promote its values while — in turn — playing a pivotal role in contributing to Tupper Lake’s economy.

“Our mission is our focus,” she said. “The interconnectedness of people and other parts of nature. Nature and people — that’s what we’re sticking to — and just bringing that to as many people as possible.”

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Student art show

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Much of the artwork the elementary school students produced was tied to the natural world, with an emphasis on the local environment and wildlife, according to Anna Kittle, an art teacher at L.P. Quinn Elementary School.

She said each elementary student — about 330 in total, according to building Principal Elizabeth Littlefield — produced one piece of art for the show. All of the walls of the museum’s Flammer Theatre were adorned with drawings, paintings and other student illustrations. Kittle said she worked to incorporate knowledge about the Adirondacks into her art lessons, with each grade having a unique focus.

“We have all different Adirondack animals and I’m excited about these because they all came out so different but wonderful,” she said.

Kittle said pre-K students focused on owls and trees. They made rubbings using bark, and learned about some of the different textures of certain local tree species. Kindergarten students made art based on the 1967 children’s picture book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle, which they read together in class.

First-grade students focused on moose, with Kittle supplementing her lessons to students with knowledge on the status of moose in the Adirondacks and the various habitats that they do best in, with students incorporating those habits into the backgrounds of their moose artwork.

Second-grade students focused on sunsets and the color palates needed to replicate the sky’s appearance. Third-grade students produced landscapes and had the flexibility to include whatever features they wanted.

Fourth-grade students made fish cutouts from recycled cardboard. Kittle said they discussed various lures and decoys used by anglers to attract a catch. She added students created their cutouts around actual species of local fish, such as trout and walleye, studying and replicating the various patterns and shapes distinct to some of the most iconic aquatic creatures in the Adirondacks.

Similarly, fifth-grade students made ponds, incorporating various local ecological features above and beneath the water’s surface.

Kittle, who is in her fourth year teaching at L.P. Quinn, said she was proud of the time and effort that students took to produce the works on display for the public. She added that her favorite part of the job is being able to work with her students on a daily basis.

“Working with the kids,” she said. “They’re so creative, wonderful and enthusiastic.”