(ABOVE) DHS Senior and Art Club President Lauren Stark cuts the ribbon for the new student art display at the SIHF (Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation) FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center), just down the hallway from the DHS art classrooms.
On Danville High School’s lower level sits the SIHF (Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation) medical clinic for District 118 students. And just down the hall from there are the Danville High School art classrooms. An idea was hatched a while back to have DHS students create artwork that would set a welcoming tone for the clinic. And on Friday (March 15th), that new display was dedicated.
(1st Picture) Artwork in the SIHF clinic worked on by DHS students Esmeralda Spanricht Ocampo, Avery Gragert, Haiden Grigsby, and JaCayne Dowell. (2nd Picture) DHS Art Teacher Michaela Gomez poses next to a student mural in the lower level of Danville High School, which is added to each year by DHS art students. (3rd Picture) Artwork in the SIHF clinic worked on by Avery Gragert.
SIHF Senior Vice-President Kena Gray says the plan is to add more works in the future; and the DHS art program, and the students, have definitely delivered what the foundation was looking for.
AUDIO: (To) Create a safe and inspirational place for them to feel welcome, and to feel scene and heard. So we actually we able to get enough canvases for the outside area. Our next goal is to try to work on some things for the examination rooms.
(1st Picture) A DHS art room on the building’s lower level. (2nd Picture) DHS art teacher Michaela Gomez poses next to a critique wall in her classroom, which she felt was especially needed for students planning to major in Art in college. (3rd Picture) A ceramics room, currently under construction for the Danville High School Art Department.
Danville High School graduate and art teacher Michaela Gomez says it was a unique opportunity for her students; and they knew it.
AUDIO: They were really nervous at first. Because this was a very big project for us. I mean, we’ve never some something this big. We brainstormed the ideas. We kind of went back and forth with the clinic. They really wanted something empowering; something that really spoke to students these days.
SIHF Senior Vice-President Kena Gray and DHS art teacher Michaela Gomez welcome everyone to the dedication as DHS art students look on.
For DHS Art Club president Lauren Stark, the greatest thing in the long run was the art students all working together.
AUDIO: I’m not going to lie, it was a challenge. But that’s okay. We had some ideas that they didn’t like; so we said, “okay, let’s go back to the drawing board.” And we came up with something that, I think, everybody really likes. We have our inspirational quotes; and all the conversations we would have, having fun, while working on these canvases.
Stark is a senior; planning to major in Art and minor in Art Education; starting at DACC and then going to Eastern Illinois.
