There’s a lot of uncertainty right now for funding in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. It’s dealing with a $17 million budget deficit and some teachers fear that electives, like art, could be on the chopping block.
But earlier this month at the Kenai Art Center, the energy was cheerful. Students, parents and teachers celebrated artwork created in the district’s schools at the art center’s 34th annual student art show.
The show features work from middle and high school students across the district. Ten teachers selected up to 18 pieces of art from their students to make the show.
“This is a place where they can really get to gather and be championed and be awarded and talked about, and really shown a lot of that attention that I think athletes get in a lot of ways, theater kids get that in a lot of ways. And this is the place for the art kids to get that,” said Soldotna High School art teach Chris Jenness.
Each teacher looked for technical achievement and unique ideas in their students’ artwork. At the show, a group of judges awarded the best three in the 15 categories.
“It was really hard to pick, you know, so-called winners when art is really subjective,” said Kaitlin Vadla, one of the show’s three judges. She says it took them about three hours to select their favorites.
“It gave us time to really look at all of the students' work and enjoy it, and look at it from far away, and look at it close up,” Vadla said.
One of this year’s student award winners was Anne Marie Lacy, a sophomore at Kenai Central High School. She won first prize in the color drawing category for her sketch of a cougar skull.
Intended to be a quick-turn drawing assignment, Lacy says she spent a lot of time working on it outside the classroom. It was also her first time working with pastels.
Lacy says her teacher motivated her to submit the piece for the show.
“I think having spaces like these can push young people like myself to continue with their creativity and into their adult life," Lacy said. "Art is so, I think so important in our whole world. And I think without art, the world would be a lot dimmer.”
“At the school level, we’ll display work in the library, and I think that's an honor," said John Morton, Lacy's art teacher. "Kids even sometimes will make work and they'll go, ‘is this library worthy?’ So there is some, I guess, pride that comes from that."
"But to have a place like this where the whole community can come, and we get community artists to come and judge it and spend time looking at it, you know, that's really important,” Morton added.
Jenness, at Soldotna High School, says the art show allows the community to see what students in the district are doing. And with fear of cuts to the district’s art programs, he says highlighting student work is critical.
“This really shines a light on some really great things that come out of our public schools," Jenness said. "And I think that's really important for the community, to be able to see that it's not just the things that they may always think of. It's these things, too.”
Jenness says art programs are vital in schools because it makes for more well-rounded students. He also says some students create art to cope with stress from other classes or their personal lives.
The Kenai Art Center’s 34th annual KPBSD student art show will be on view through the end of the month.
