The Centre was filled with praise and admiration from more than a hundred William S. Hart Union High School District students, family members and administrators Wednesday evening who came to support their junior high and high schoolers at the student art exhibition.
Shanna and Leanne Kim, sophomores at Canyon High School, said they had been preparing their art pieces for sale since the fall semester. They were originally set to showcase them in January, but the event was postponed due to the Hughes Fire.
Having finished the Junior ARTrepreneurs program months ago, Leanne and Shanna Kim said they felt more confident in their art now and found a community that supported them.
“Before I started this class, I felt not very confident in my art. I felt like my art was inferior to other people’s. Being in this art program I had to learn how to look at other people’s art and be like their art is awesome and so is mine,” said Shanna Kim.
Both of the girls featured drawings of scenes, quotes in Korean that resonated with them and characters that they had made up. Groups of people walked by and purchased some pieces, complimenting the girls on how accomplished their pieces were.
In a partnership with Heroes of Color and the Hart district’s Career and College Readiness program, school site administrators selected students they knew had a passion for art and offered them a placement in the Junior ARTrepreneurs program to explore their talent and teach them skills they would need to make it into a career.
“During the course of the last two years, principals and counselors and teachers have worked with students to help identify other students that they knew had a passion for art and also a passion for going into this career possibly in the future,” said Carolyn Hoffman, director of the CCR program. “They can learn that they can really have that gig economy, and they can have their own business, which is what’s so exciting for our students to have built those skills.”
Hoffman said the student art exhibition was put together to show off the skills that the students learned in both their talent and how to sell their work. She added that culinary art students were walking around the event giving away treats they had learned to make, and several high schools had bands performing throughout the evening.
Any purchases that were made at the booths went directly back to the students, added Hoffman. Some booths even had tip jars to help students pay for art supplies if attendees wanted to help out but couldn’t buy.
“Tonight is truly extraordinary. I’ve already spent many dollars of my own,” said Hoffman. “They’re all here and anything that you buy, all of that goes to the students. So, it’s really teaching them again, their arts, their career and also the opportunity to sell. Many of them have information sheets where people can also purchase in the future, if maybe something that they see has already sold out.”
Hoffman added that the impact of the evening would not be possible if it wasn’t for David Heredia, founder and CEO of Heroes of Color, and Ira Rounsaville, a Hart district social worker.
Heredia said that he was grateful for the partnership with the district and being given the opportunity to show what the students take away from the program.
Parents were going up to Heredia to talk to him about the impact his program has had on their students and inquiring how they can get other friends involved.
“Even though this is really focusing on entrepreneurship and the arts, students are finding their voice,” said Heredia. “They’re finding a way to tap into things that they really like and are advocating for themselves, you know, which it was an unintended part. That wasn’t my original pitch to them, but to see that happening is just so remarkable. So, I am truly, truly grateful for the Hart district in allowing me and my instructors to bring this to them.”
Sierra Vista Junior High School eighth grader Emma Carlos was patiently sitting at her booth talking to potential customers about her painted skateboards, pins and stickers.
Carlos said she was pulled out of one of her classes one day and taken to the office to be told about the art program. She said that people had told the school site administrators she enjoyed art and that her art was cool, so she decided to join it.
Working toward the art exhibit, she said she would go to the classes and create stuff from the materials they provided the students, and she was excited to show them off on Wednesday.
“This was definitely like a huge step forward (for me), I believe. And it means a lot to me to have an event like this,” said Carlos. “The program definitely taught me that your art doesn’t have to be what you see online every day. It doesn’t have to be realistic; it can just be you. And it just also helped me socialize more with other people in my grade, and I thought that was really cool. It helped me step out of my comfort zone.”
She added that the community she found through the program was unexpected at first, but it was nice to have people with the same interests and who she could collaborate with.
Like Carlos, many of the students said the art pieces they were selling were based on their personal inspirations.
Miko Castro, a sophomore at Valencia High School, said that his work was strongly based off his culture.
“A lot of my art is inspired by my culture. I am Mexican, my grandparents immigrated here years and years ago and I take a lot of pride in that. I take pride in who I am and what I represent. I do things that let people know what I am and I’m not afraid to show that,” said Castro.
Castro said it was his mom who pushed him to join the program, and he became more and more interested in it. He said the program taught him that “art is what you make it out to be.”
He added that in the beginning of the program, when all the schools were brought together, a few artists looked like they were nervous and had trouble sharing the art they made. The more they went through it together, however, the more they opened up to one another and helped them show off their talents.
Legend Goff, a junior at Bowman High School, said the program helped him grow closer to his friends and find more connections with other students.
Goff said he used his art as a channel to help his mental health and learn how he could potentially make a career with selling his art.
“I would definitely say that a lot more people should be focused on more stuff like this than just being on their phone and being sad. If you’re sad, I encourage people to go do something with it; use it as motivation,” said Goff.
