Art funds have gone down significantly for Carter High School in 2020. The money given by students has decreased due to issues presented by Covid-19. The impact has been great.
Mrs. Adams, an art teacher at Carter, said, “They have been cut in half from the county. More people are unable to pay their art fee due to economic hardship during this time, which is understandable.” The money that students would normally use for art fees, or any fees for that matter, are being used for expenses that the pandemic has introduced us to. These may include hand sanitizer, masks, cleaning supplies, etc.
Students can help with the art fees in other ways, though. One way to do that is by fundraising. “It really helps,” Adams said. When students aren’t able to pay the art fee, seeking ways to earn money can take its place. Take selling cookies, for example; you make money by vending a product, which is a way to raise funds. The money that students earn can be used to support those in the art department at our school. That would allow for more creations by our artists, and perhaps an even larger amount on display.
If the art department had more funds, then its students would have more supplies to use in their works. Mrs. Adams states that she would buy brush sets, canvases, oil paints, etc. for each student if her department had more money. She would also buy a large format printer for photography. That way, her students would have the proper tools available to them. “But that’s if I won the art lottery,” Adams said. Anything helps, however.
Another art teacher at our school, Mrs. McCulley, shared about the pains of lower art budgets too. “We have been affected. I have dozens of unfinished artwork; I have a bunch of clay work… the students were in the middle of the ceramic unit, and that work has been left unfinished.” She also claims to have done homecoming in the past (like Mrs. Adams), along with chili suppers, selling tee shirts, and giving art lessons for a small fee.
“…But at some point teachers are tired, and having to raise funds for the program is a lot of above and beyond what we already do,” she says. She also agrees that whenever students pay their art fee, it can increase the funds by a lot. “My deadline for spending money is coming soon,” she said. Since the art teachers only have a certain amount of time to spend their money, it may become even harder for them to support their department financially. McCully also said, “If we had more funding, my students would not be making their own sketchbooks; they would have their own sketchbooks. We would probably have professional art supplies. Right now we use crayola (she calls them ‘crapola’), but if we had more supplies, we could do larger artworks.”
Donations and fundraising would be appreciated by the staff of the art department. The money given by the students of our school would be going towards art supplies, bigger artworks, and materials for the education of the art students. If many students gave only a few dollars, it could create a big impact on the art department this year.
Carter Corps News 