With upcoming changes to current art classes, the art department is starting the 2025 school year off with a blank canvas.
“We’re changing and adjusting the whole art curriculum, adding in new and different classes and trying to have classes that give stronger interest to your guys’ likes and dislikes,” art teacher Christina Dawson said.
Dawson is on the school district’s Art Department Leadership Team that’s responsible for the upcoming changes in the curriculum. Along with new ceramics and fashion classes being offered, the names and durations of existing classes will be adjusted. The material in the classes will, however, remain the same.
The first step in this new curriculum will go into effect during the 2025 year. The half semester classes Drawing and Painting I and II will be separated into two full year classes, Drawing and Painting. Sculpture will also become a full year class. The names of Multimedia, Film and Advanced Film will be called Digital Art, Video Production and Advanced Video Production to more accurately fit the classes descriptions.
A new fashion class will also be piloted, meaning if enough students sign up to take the class it will be offered annually. The class will be a yearlong and instructed by art teacher Jennifer Ramirez. A share-time ceramics class will be held at Stevenson High School as well.
“I like that students will have more options for classes because I feel like for senior year if you like art, you’re kind of out of electives to take,” junior Gabrielle Tasky said.
As Fashion and Ceramics join the curriculum, the Art Foundations class will no longer be offered due to students’ disinterest in the course. The required prerequisites for art classes will also be discontinued.
“Now you don’t have to take a beginning art course in order to take these more subject based art courses. You can just jump right into taking ceramics or jump right into taking painting or drawing or a digital art course of some kind,” Dawson said.
In the next three to four years, more classes will be added to the art curriculum and offered at all four high schools. Some classes offered in the future include a jewelry and metal smithing class, a marketing for the arts class and an art appreciation class.
“It’ll definitely bring more students to the program,” senior Annabella Peret said. “And since it’s now so diverse people are able to come right to one of the art mediums they like and really get to experiment and play with it.”
