“Students need a place where they can experience careers in the arts.”

- Rosalyn Shepherd, Chair of Planning for Fine Arts, Sandusky City Schools

Creating and managing an art gallery is not a typical assignment for high school art students. Yet, Rosalyn Shepherd says her students, who are enrolled in the Great Lakes Visual & Performing Arts Academy within Sandusky High School, are “taking on the responsibilities like champs!”

By mid-October the teens had set up and hosted their first student-created show – For the Love of Art – a virtual experience (due to Covid-19), which displays 53 paintings, sculptures, and ceramics curated from teachers and students within the district.

The artwork is housed within the newly created “Michele Ziemke Student Art Gallery”, named for a former teacher who spearheaded efforts to intensify art education in the district. The gallery fills a recently renovated classroom in an historic Sandusky school building. The building took on a new role this fall as the Regional Center for Advanced Academic Studies (RCAAS), a 3-6 elementary school for Sandusky students gifted in academics and visual and performing arts.

“For the Love of Art” was the inaugural assignment for the 9-12 grade students enrolled in Mrs. Shepherd’s yearlong Visual Arts course. The class was created and offered for the first this fall to give high school art students time to experience unique opportunities in their discipline.

Mrs. Shepherd immediately enlisted the expertise of Marsha Carrington, a local artist and gallery owner, to discuss the fundamentals that go into running a professional gallery with her class. Through a three-part workshop, Ms. Carrington explained how to select artists, display art, manage contracts, establish budgets, advertise, market, and host a gallery show.  

Students toured her business, CARRINGTON Arts, to study what a professional gallery looks like before putting finishing touches on their own space.

“I believe in hands-on learning,” says Mrs. Shepherd, Chair of Planning for Fine Arts for Sandusky City Schools, who has been teaching art at the elementary, middle, and high school levels for 24 years.

“I could talk to students about running a gallery,” she continues, “but until they actually do it, work through the problems, figure out what their options are, make decisions that will ‘make it or break it,’ they are not going to understand the process. Putting every single aspect of this gallery together is giving them that understanding. And the growth I’ve seen in just a few weeks has done my heart good.”

Gallery Management is just one component of the “Arts Careers Project” Mrs. Shepherd is implementing after having received a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation. An exploration of two additional careers – arts educator and visual arts archivist– is also imbedded in the program.

Explaining the reason for the career-focused effort, Mrs. Shepherd says that visual and performing arts students approach high school graduation with feelings of uncertainty. They may excel in the arts but often lack the confidence to continue their studies in college, let alone pursue art careers. Much of this apprehension is due to an unfamiliarity with the hundreds of art careers available.

“I don’t want kids coming out of high school having seen professionals [working in the arts] but not feeling confident doing it themselves,” she remarks. “This project gives them the opportunity to be hands-on, to be right in the thick of things, to feel comfortable putting themselves out there.”

Mrs. Shepherd’s students will manage all aspects of the art gallery throughout the school year and have scheduled four unique exhibits that will rotate through the space during that time. While they continue to handle those responsibilities, they will also experience what it is like to be an art educator. As a class requirement, they will serve as “assistants” to outside teaching artists who will work with elementary students who attend RCAAS (the school that houses the gallery). Mrs. Shepherd is contracting with a variety of artists from the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning in Cleveland to create monthly projects for these children.

Taking on the Role of Mentor

The first of those artists, illustrator and designer Sequoia Bostick, presented Zoom workshops for the young students and their families in October to introduce them to a project they will complete in upcoming weeks. The assignment involves embellishing a self-portrait with words, phrases, or personal anecdotes in an effort that inspires social-emotional growth.

Ms. Bostick also Zoomed with the high school students to illustrate how she creates lesson plans and to explain how her role as a teaching artist differs from that of a licensed art educator. Now that the district is holding in-person classes (as of last week in October), high school students are beginning to visit the elementary classrooms to help the younger children complete Ms. Bostick’s assignment. The teens are creating their own portraits first to serve as examples to show their younger charges.

“I like to encourage mentoring,” says Mrs. Shepherd, emphasizing how relationships between older and younger individuals benefit both. “The high schoolers feel better about themselves because they are helping someone out; and the younger kids feel they have a support system – somebody they can look up to who is in the position they want to be in.”

Envisioning what these interactions will look like, Mrs. Shepherd says the high school students will establish relationships with the younger kids by saying, “This is my art; this is how I create my work; and you may think differently about how you create yours. But you can look at mine, and I can help you get to where you want to be.”  The finished pieces will be featured in the second student-run art show expected to open in-person at the gallery in late November.

“I want the high school students to have a stronger sense of self, to feel more confident in their ability to initiate a project and see it through.” - Rosalyn Shepherd

The third career students will explore through the “Arts Careers Project” is that of visual arts archivist.  Archive librarians will teach the skills and processes needed to professionally archive prints and resources for study. Students will gather items based on artists, eras, style, and media; collect prints; take digital photos; and assemble resources into packets for the new arts reference library located within the gallery.

When the school year ends, Mrs. Shepherd hopes both groups of students will have learned valuable lessons. “I want the elementary students to see that art is expansive, it’s everywhere, and that they can create something that is artistic even if it’s something that doesn’t go on a wall. 

“I want the high school students to have a stronger sense of self, to feel more confident in their ability to initiate a project and see it through. I want them to feel comfortable starting something innovative that will help society. And I want them to understand how their artistic ability can be used in more than one way.”

Just a few weeks into the school year, she is proud of what they have already accomplished: “They are stepping up in so many ways. They are really interested in the activities and they are taking their responsibilities seriously.”