ACE program encouraging young artists

The creative talents of junior high and high school students have been uncorked over the last few weeks thanks to an after-school program sponsored by Clarendon’s Les Beaux Arts Club.

For five years now, the women’s organization established in 1927 has worked to establish a volunteer art curriculum in the Clarendon public school system in conjunction with the club’s annual arts festival. Club members work with elementary students, and a volunteer professional artist has worked with older students. But this year, the club went a step further and employed a professional artist to help guide about two dozen students.

Project organizer Chriss Clifford had worked with Rafael Cañizares-Yunez in 2012 as she led a restoration of the St. Mary’s Catholic Church at Umbarger. Aware of his background and his talents, Clifford reached out to the Columbian-born artist who now calls Amarillo home.

With Rafael’s help, the club has taken its ACE (Art Cultivates Enlightenment) Program to a new level, offering a seven-week after-school class that helps students working with different kinds of art.

“We have at least two to three volunteers at each class, and the club provided the funding,” Clifford said. “This year, the high school also provided some of the art supplies. They had some money for it in the budget because last year they had a teacher doing both visual and performing arts.”

The program accepted 25 students who applied for the ACE program. Of those, about 18 or 19 show up regularly due to scheduling conflicts.

The class meets Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon’s in the old home economics room adjacent to the Old Gym. Katherine Williams is a Les Beaux member who has been volunteering since this year’s program began in August.

“It’s been fun watching them create,” Williams said. “They are working in all mediums, and Rafael has taught them wonderful lessons about mixing colors, lines, and depth.”

Williams said the club purchased some of the supplies the students are using, other supplies were donated, and still others are left over from a high school art class that was being taught last year by the school’s previous drama teacher before she left the school.

Sixth grader Serenity Burnett last week was putting the finishing touches on a painting of a horse at night, a piece she calls “Night Mare.”

“This is my biggest piece so far; It’s my favorite,” she said. “I love to do art. If we had a regular art class in school, that would be awesome.”

Jami McConnell is a freshman who also wishes that art was a regular class at Clarendon ISD. She was working on a piece looking at the two sides of the same person, a painting that she is calling “Split World.”

“Rafael lets us do what we want then he explains it and teaches us how to make it better,” McConnell said. “He teaches us how to make new colors and how to change colors.”

Eighth grader Nathan Estlack agrees with McConnell that mixing colors has been one of the most interesting aspects of the class.

“You can take three colors and make an infinite number of colors,” Estlack said.
Mycah Woodard is a ninth grader who finds art relaxing and also wishes it was a regular class.

“I think it’s pretty cool, and I think it’s helped a lot of people,” Woodard said. “It gives me piece of mind.”

Rafael says his class is individually based and focuses on the elements and principals of design.

“I try to allow them to discover something about the creative process,” he said. “We question what they did and critique each other.”

With such a diverse age group, Rafael has to work with a wide range of talents – some students have been doing art for years while others are just beginning – as well as a wide range of confidence.

“My job is to encourage them to build on success and support them where they are at,” he said.

Students can become frustrated while working on their art as they overcome challenges to get their work just right and to to push through creative blocks, but Rafael says persisting through those moments can teach students a lot about life.

“The lessons you learn through the creative process apply everywhere, whether they become artists or scientists or entrepreneurs,” he said.

Rafael gives all the credit for the program to the arts club.

“They are the ones that have made this happen and have volunteered their time,” he said.

Williams said part of the agreement the club made with the kids who enrolled in the art project was that they must enter two of their pieces in the annual Arts Festival, which will be held October 27 and 28. One piece will just be in the gallery, but the other piece will be sold to help raise funds for the club and support future projects. Students can also enter other pieces in the show for a small fee.

Rafael’s art class will come to a close on October 17, but Clifford said the members of Les Beaux Arts Club continue to hold out hope that the school will see fit and find it in the budget to create a permanent art program at the school.

“We anticipate that teachers and administrators will see a difference in these students’ academic performance as a result of their exposure to the arts,” Clifford said. “We also believe that to have a well-rounded student, the arts need to be a part of the curriculum.”