The Animas Quill

26/06/2025

12/05/2025

Buy your yearbook! Link in Bio!

09/05/2025

Come support student filmmakers at the AHS Annual Film Festival this Tuesday, May 13th at the Durango Arts Center. Doors open at 6:30 and films roll from 7:00-9:00.

The festival is a collaboration between Drew’s Film Production class, Jessica’s Quill Media electives, Oliver and Drew’s Advanced Digital Arts class, and a handful of independent filmmakers. There will be short narrative films, video news reels, short documentaries, and some other fun surprises. Several seniors made films for their senior projects that will be featured, as well as a professional documentary made by an AHS alumnus who has gone on to work in the film industry.

This will be a red carpet style film premiere, so audience members are encouraged to have some fun picking out a fancy ‘fit!

Drew excitedly exclaimed, “It’s gonna be fun! There’s gonna be lots of easter eggs, so hold on to your hat!”

Story by Mark A.F. McGinnis

09/05/2025

On April 24th Hayden Bicknell completed her senior project by hosting Voices Unbound: An Evening Of Feminist Poetry.
Hayden’s senior research question was “How has the representation of the female body in feminist poetry changed from the second through the fourth wave of feminism” and she brought that to life with her open-mic feminist poetry night. As students, teachers, and members of the community read out either their own poetry or someone else’s, feminist poetry was changing before their very eyes.

28/04/2025

Hi Ospreys! Make sure to buy tickets (just $10!!!) for this movie in the park senior project by Emma Burnett THIS FRIDAY!! There will be concessions at the event and we would love to see you there! Purchase tickets through the QR code, or the following link: https://driveinmoviecoco.rsvpify.com/?securityToken=mzmcKvcIiXJVhrRhCNXUduy0NrFglld2

25/04/2025

🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓😎

22/04/2025

PROM 🎲❤️🃏

15/04/2025

Congratulations to Cameron and Genevieve’s 9th-grade Humanities classes on a successful Creative Writing exhibition and bake sale last Friday evening. Students and parents gathered on the upstairs balcony for a casual open mic night to share the short stories and poems the Animas freshpeople wrote over the last few months and compiled in their freshly published anthology.

Students who attended got to watch their peers read some of the works their most proud of in front of a crowd and provided an amazing amount of support for each other. Genesis Cruz said “The open mic went really well and i really enjoyed the way everything was set up. I enjoyed watching my friends and classmates read their stories, and I left the evening feeling proud of our finished anthology.”

Cameron reflected on the success of the exhibition: “I’m proud that students had the courage to sit on stage and share their work. It was nice to make use of the upstairs patio as a setting for the gathering. Afterwards, students gave good feedback for following exhibitions and how we could do even better in the future.”

Overall, the event brought a lovely end to the week by celebrating students’ work and giving an opportunity to share with the Animas community. If you were unable to make it to the exhibition, copies of the anthology can still be purchased for $10 at student request, or they will be displayed again during the all-school exhibition on May 15!

Story by AnnaMae O’Keefe

04/04/2025

The AHS theatre class ended their week with a visit from an inspirational guest speaker! Erika Vetter, a New York-based actor, writer, and freelance artist stopped by Joy’s 7th period to share her wisdom and answer students’ questions about her profession and managing her life as an artist.

She gave them professional tips about auditioning and getting parts, stating, “You’re not booking the role, you’re booking the room.” Performing a role isn’t just about acting like a character, it’s about including the room in your experience as that character while telling their story.

She encouraged the young Osprey thespians to go for their dreams after high school, despite the challenges of getting acting jobs and making a living. She shared that it’s essential to keep their own interests in mind while looking for work, sharing that there will come times when roles are hard to find or connect with. She is also an aspiring writer and stays busy creating. This is where being multiskilled while working freelance is important because you are constantly evolving your skills to fit your needs. She advised them, “If you’re not finding work, you can create it for yourself.”

Erika was here with Durango Playfest as part of their Real-World Theatre speaker series, and spoke yesterday at Fort Lewis College to students and community members. Although she lives in New York, she has connections to Durango theatre and has worked with local company Merely Players, most recently in Swing State, which some of these same AHS theatre students were able to see. You can also catch Erika in movies and on TV, including a recent episode of “Only Murders in the Building” on Hulu.

The Animas theatre troupe will enter the weekend with new inspiration and ideas on how to develop their acting skills and progress as artists. Thank you to and for sharing your time and wisdom with our aspiring thespians!

Story by Annamae O’Keefe

28/02/2025

Britt’s first period Studio Art class was blessed with a very special guest speaker on Monday morning. Jesse Hutt, one of the founders of Animas High School, came in to share her passion for printmaking.

In preparation for the monotyping unit in art, Jesse introduced different techniques on how to use “gel plates” for printmaking. This involves a silicone plate to transfer images and to print “mono printing” which in layman’s terms means to make unique prints, and the techniques she introduced would help in that.

Britt invited Jesse after finding out that she had recently taken a printmaking class in Santa Fe. “Jesse Hutt came into consult with me about this upcoming class she was taking and since I wanted to do this project with my students anyway I thought It’d be symbiotic for Jesse to come give a little demo on the process before we launched in to the project” - Britt Blasdell

Jesse was elated to join the class and share her expertise with the Osprey artists. She reflected, “It was a blast making art with Britt’s class! We created gel plate prints, a unique form of printing where each layer of color adds a new surprise. It was refreshing to see everyone more engaged with their artwork than their screens!”

The artists will now turn to monoprinting with gel plates on their own designs. These pieces will be part of the Art Exhibition on April 17th at Zia Taqueria.

Story by Sonya Stewart