It’s a normal morning in art class: the radio is on playing whatever station happens to be working that day. Mrs. Stapert is running around the art room making sure everything is set and students all over the room getting supplies to work on their projects. While across the country art is getting cut in schools, but Mrs. Stapert works extremely hard to keep the program at Granby Jr/Sr High School running: she spends her own money on new art supplies and her husband helps her build storage and shelving.

The high school art class is located in room 221. Mrs. Stapert offers Art Foundations 1 & 2, DYC, Painting and Drawing, Inspired Arts, Ceramics 1 & 2, and Senior Portfolio. All of her classes run for 1 semester. The classes are mixed with 9-12th graders. Students generally don’t have homework in art classes unless they don’t finish the project for the week. Some of student’s pieces may be displayed over the school in the display cases, or at the end of the school year when Mrs. Stapert runs an arts night at the school. For arts night,  art from all classes middle and high school is displayed all over the cafeteria and stage and people can also perform music.

In Inspired Arts the projects that students do are based on various art styles. Projects include impression bottles, art nouveau (pastels), carved clay tiles, sculptures, and minimalist geometric animal painting and drawing.

DYC or Discover Your Creativity is a mixed media class. The syllabus calls it “a class dedicated to the intertwining of creative ideas and recycled materials with unique hands-on projects.” Projects include mini art, art arch, tooling foil, marbled art, book sculptures, and painting objects.

Ceramic 1 & 2 are pretty similar classes. They deal with clay on and off the wheel. Mrs. Stapert doesn’t recommend the class if you don’t like to get dirty. Projects include leaf & impressed dishes, technique tiles, sgraffito tiles or coasters, marbling & mishima, pottery wheel sets and extruded trays.

In Painting and Drawing works on students painting & drawing media, skills & techniques. Projects for this class include Watercolor & Masking Fluid Design, Transparency Dream Drawing, Ripped Landscape, Pencil Portrait, and 3D Gem Paintings & Drawing. Art Foundations 1 & 2 are also very similar classes. It is a deeper dive into the different techniques and tools that are used in different mediums. Projects for these classes include mythical creatures, pop art acrylic portraits, inked images, base relief interpretations, and transformative paintings.

Senior Portfolio is a class only for seniors. Over the course of a semester there is a list of things to do for the class – which is less of a traditional class and more of an independent study.  Students work all semester on their final project which is a portfolio displaying all their work for the year.

The Daily Dino hopes that the art program continues to thrive in our school. We also would love to thank Mrs. Stapert for her hard work and dedication that she has put into her classes and fostering the arts at Granby Jr/Sr High.