001It's an area that our students put a lot of time, a lot of effort in. Our teachers do a wonderful job in terms of getting kids to express themselves. It builds confidence for students and it gives them that opportunity just to kind of express themselves that maybe they can't in other classes. I just love the way I'm able to be creative when it comes to some of my artworks and it really allows me to express some of the things that mean most to me in life such as my faith or my family. >> Even if you're not like fully into art, it's still like fun. You still get to use your creative juices and get those flowing. It's great just to have a place to go where you don't have to have a constant pressure
002and it allows you to kind of experiment and try different things and see what you like. >> One of the best things that I see that the teachers do is they don't tell students what they should do. They ask them those guiding questions to help kids think about what they're doing and make it very conscientious decisions >> rather than giving them um step-by-step formulas. um they are presented with challenges and problems to be solved. >> Failing is a part of the process in art. So, I actually like when my students fail because it gives them the opportunity to learn from the mistakes that they made. >> When I'm demoing or working with students, I'm throwing out suggestions and I tell them, "I may not know the answer, but let's figure it out together." It allows
003you to like really open your mind to a bunch of stuff and really get creative with practically anything you want. >> It's a great thing to do that you could kind of just take a break in the middle of the day. Just relax and be yourself. The community is also really great. Like everyone who's in an art class is super creative and fun. When we're reflecting and even in critique, students are sharing different ideas amongst each other. in class, we discuss so many ideas and so getting to like discuss that with somebody. It It's just a great feeling. >> Well, we've had a long-standing tradition at Andrew to make sure that the students work gets out into the community just because um they're putting so much time and so much effort. Um and it's an
004opportunity for the community to see the things that we're that we're doing here. >> When student work is out in the public, it um provides students with a voice. It um tells us who they are. >> When my art's on um display, it's really cool. I love hearing like the feedback from people to see how like outsiders perceive my art. >> And we've added over the years different types of art competitions to make sure that it's not only viewed nationally, but also locally >> out in the community. It's displayed in local galleries, regional art competitions, national art competitions. Last year, I got two honorable mentions for um a few of my advanced drawing drawings. >> Last year at the Samberg Art Show, I got first place for ceramics and I've been to the Governor State
005Show every single year so far. So, that's been awesome. >> It's important that we get our work out in the public. We want to create a relationship between the classroom and the community. Um, so we find that it's important that these students who've worked really hard and put a lot of effort into their work get their work shown. >> I walked in thinking I was not going to win anything and they just appeared with this new new award that no one's heard of and I just got the the visionary award. So I I really like that they liked that I was very creative. I think um displaying artwork in the community gives students confidence. Confidence in who they are, that their work is is good to show to people and to um tell their story,
006to see joy and beauty in the world, and to um be safe and able to express themselves and who they are. I just love to see students involved in the art program. I love connecting with the community and showing off all of our amazing artwork cuz they really do put in so much effort and creativity and time into all of the pieces of work that they do. >> Encouraging that anything is possible as long as they can put in some effort. >> I really like um making people happy through my art. Makes me happy that other people are happy when they look at my like like all the colors and all the um creativity that goes into it. The story behind it too. One of the coolest things that I see during the school year
007is sitting at uh the art show and having students bringing their parents, their grandparents, their little brothers, their aunts and showing them their artwork and just seeing the the look on their faces and then also seeing the the look of pride on the students face of I did that. I made that. It's better than the stuff I used to put on my refrigerator. >> You should definitely take an art class. If you're watching this, you should take an art class.