Kandis Horton

…and not just because they make awesome shoes!

In addition to the Vans Custom Culture Contest the company puts on for high schools nationwide every year, they have partnered with Americans for the Arts to contribute $2,000 to ten high schools in order to further art programs that have big goals or aspirations to improve facilities for students. The Las Plumas High School (LPHS) Art Department teachers–Kandis Horton and Julie Tooker–applied for the Vans Custom Culture grant in November of 2013 in order to serve the art students of the area in a manner that would enrich their arts experience and education.

For any of you that have visited the Arts classrooms at Las Plumas High, you may be impressed by the creative and collaboratively conducive “round table” seating design in Art, or perhaps the full lab and lighting studio in Digital Photography.  Stepping into the Ceramics room is another experience entirely: you enter a room where every nook is utilized due to its almost claustrophobic close quarters with a classroom of 34+ students.  Shelves line the walls with student work overflowing, a small wedging table allows 2-3 students at a time to prepare clay, two sinks on the far side of the room accommodate all cleanup tasks throughout and at the end of the period, and a sad, broken slab roller operates as a slab-rolling “surface” for much hand-built student work.

Well, folks, not only does the LPHS Ceramics room now have a bright and shiny new slab roller to aid students in a more time and energy efficient manner, but our dwindling clay supply problem has also been alleviated by Vans choosing Las Plumas to receive one of the ten grants this year! Woohoo!!  Students now are able to break out of the limitations by which a faltering economy has restricted them and are able to allow their imaginations run free and CREATE unhindered. We are grateful to Vans for giving us this opportunity, and we hope to provide our community with great pieces of ceramic art to feel proud of as we present them in the Silver Dollar Fair coming up in May of 2014!

Check out this photo of our new slab roller!!  (We WILL be getting a clearer photo for this as soon as break is over!)

Aaaaand here is our new load of clay!

So far, we have been working on artist-inspired teapots with our new materials and roller.  Below are some photos of students making progress! (To come: Greek Vessels photos–our first larger project of the year with the new clay!)

We can’t wait to display all of our year’s hard work and creative expression our local and online community to enjoy. Las Plumas art students are advancing their skills and making their best even better so that we, our families, and our friends can be proud of our work. Thank you, Vans. Thank you, Americans for the Arts. Your partnership and generosity have touched us deeply and provided opportunity for challenges and success.

This article was originally published on the Las Plumas High School blog on April 21, 2014.