With a grant from the Education Foundation, George H.W. Bush New Tech Odessa art teacher Jesus Valeriano decided to revamp a display space for work by students, teachers and even the community.
He was awarded a $5,876 grant from the Education Foundation for the Enkindle Gallery.
The grant went for a new hanging system and lighting, Valeriano said.
“We had a gallery, but for the past two years it was a COVID room,” he said.
Principal Gerardo Ramirez said every campus had to have a designated area to limit exposure to COVID. At NTO, it was the art gallery.
With the grant, the gallery will reopen.
“I just got the stuff for it last week,” Valeriano said.
He added that probably in the next few weeks he’ll be inducting a chapter of the National Art Society and the opening of the gallery.
“We are thrilled to update our art gallery, thanks to the Education Foundation. Our art learners are excited. They have been working diligently to prepare for the art gallery’s re-opening,” Principal Gerardo Ramirez said in a text message.
Valeriano said the grant will set the gallery up to be super nice.
“We really got everything that we could have ever dreamed of to set up a real gallery,” Valeriano said.
Last year, he got a grant for equipment for the Phoenix ceramics room. They had pottery wheels, but they had to borrow kilns from Permian High School or University of Texas Permian Basin.
“But this year, we finally set up … the ventilation system and all the necessary protection from that.”
NTO has about 150 students in its art program. The school has about 500-plus students.
“The art program is really good and the kids participate, so even when they’re not taking art they still compete and participate in the state art competitions,” Valeriano said.
Students were working on the National Fossil Art Competition that he said they have won every year since they started doing it. The contest is put on by the National Park Service.
They also participate in VASE, or the Visual Arts Scholastic Event.
“We do pretty good every year. We won two state places last year, and hopefully we can do that again this year,” Valeriano said.
Valeriano encouraged other teachers to go for Education Foundation grants. They like grants that are going to help students discover things or see things from a different perspective.
“They do support you. The help is there,” Valeriano said.
The Foundation conducts workshops to help teachers write the grants.
“They are really not complicated. They’re super easy to write. They really give you almost a step by step of the things that you need. And I think people have a wrong idea of what writing a grant entails. It’s really easy and if they see that your plan is going make your school better and help your kids have a different perspective of what they’re learning, they will support you 100%,” Valeriano said.
He already has two grants.
“And they’re going to be school changing. One of my pitches on my grant for the ceramics room was staff mental health so that all the teachers could go and do pottery. It’s very therapeutic,” he added.
He’s hoping the first show will feature the work of ECISD employees.
“It’s really amazing. I think they impact more people than even they believe. It’s really great. I think about getting the whole pottery room set up and now getting a whole gallery, that is for me a dream. I have my classroom and everything, but now I have a pottery room and now I have a whole gallery,” Valeriano said.
For an art teacher like him, he said, it’s like a dream.
“It may sound simple, which it’s not, but it’s about curating. It’s really a step above for any art teacher, or even for the kids. They will know what it is like to manage an art gallery,” he added.
