NEWPORT — In 100 years, Newport will be filled with chocolate houses, flying cars and famous people, according to student winners of a writing contest sponsored by Newport on the Levee.

        Ten imaginative essays that answered the question “What will Newport be like in 100 years?” were reproduced onto nylon sheets, 3 1/2 by 8 feet, and posted along the walls of the Levee's Third Street entrance.

Newport Middle School students look at the Levee's essays and artwork: Heather Buttery (left), Misty Smith, Beth Lucas, Stacey Stamper, Brittney Wynn and Rachel Sullivan. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        The essays are interspersed with 20 panels bearing historical photographs of Newport.

        ArtWorks, the nonprofit arts organization that created Cincinnati's Big Pig Gig, managed the project.

        Under its new Special Projects division, ArtWorks composed the essay theme and worked with Newport Middle School and the Jump mentoring program housed in Fourth Street Elementary to solicit entries.

        The organization contracted 10 artists to create the panels that hang with the essays. Photographs, reprinted with permission from the Kenton County Public Library, are joined with images of Newport's signature gears and further decorated with paint.

        “Newport on the Levee is Newport now,” ArtWorks Assistant Director Betsy Reeves said. “I wanted to tie it to Newport of the past, that is the photographs, and to the future, that is the essays, and to really position Newport on the Levee as the Newport of the moment.”

        There were 30 student entries from Fourth Street Elementary, Newport Middle School and A.D. Owens.

        “I think it is a good community, everybody gets along,” contest winner Rachel Sullivan, a 14-year-old Newport native, said. “If you need help, they give you all the help you need. The neighbors, they're all nice.”

        Heather Buttery, 15, an eighth-grader at Newport Middle School, pondered how Newport would blend its new structures with the historical. She said that she is excited about her essay being posted for all to see.

        “Everybody comes down here because they go to the movies and they look at the walls,” Heather said. “Now that they got the AMC (movie theater), we can do things because before we didn't have anywhere to go.”

        Each winning student will receive a $10 check. A recognition ceremony for winners, with their families, is at Newport Middle School's youth center. The middle school and the mentoring program will both receive a $100 honorarium, Ms. Reeves said.

        Robin Gulley, youth services site coordinator for Newport Middle School, said the students could use their essays for the portfolios required for graduation under the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990.

        Ms. Reeves said that the panels are covering wall space that fronts future retailer space and that the essays will remain up indefinitely.
       
       

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