This January, Canyon High School, Valencia High School, Golden Valley High School, Sierra Vista Middle School and Arroyo Seco Middle School will come together to showcase, sell and take custom orders after a culminating 8-week enrichment program. The enrichment program, Jr. ARTrepreneurs, was brought to the District for the first time in the Spring of 2024. Then, the participating schools were Saugus High, Castaic High, Hart High and La Mesa Middle School. The program was a pilot and ran for only 6-weeks. After seeing the incredible benefits of teaching students financial literacy, marketing, promotion and a variety of other transferable skills - Heroes of Color extended the length of the program by two weeks. 

The students are taught by talented industry professionals who are teaching from their lived experiences, amplifying the learning experiences as they bring in current trends, marketing tips, and methods on how to obtain clients. The student showcase is a culmination of 8-weeks of hard work and planning. The public can expect to see a wide variety of styles and prepare to take custom orders from students. As art has the power to unite, it will also feature music from jazz ensembles from multiple Hart District School bands who will perform during the showcase.

As an additional treat, we will host a Augmented Reality Exhibition based on a reimagined Santa Clarita Bus design. Students were asked to design a bud based on the diveristy of santa clarita or of their own culture. In order to enjoy the exhibition, attendees will need to download the free app called Halo available on all platforms. We will have student photographers and videographers and further bring home the notion of how powerful we are, when we work together. 

Be sure to follow our progress on instagram as well @jrartrepreneurs

Since 1988, we've been celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. While we celebrate the customs,  and traditions that make us unique, it's important to celebrate the people who gave us the opportunities to continue celebrating these traditions. The workshop (4th graders and up) is created to celebrate the courage of the Latino immigrants who have crossed the border, taken or jumped on a "Yola" (illegal makeshift boat) and risked it all to reach the United States. The freight train is a symbol of the act of breaking out of your comfort zone. Discomfort teaches us how strong we really are. The Freight Train to Freedom Workshop celebrates all the immigrants who had the courage to lean into their discomfort. After students complete their train in this step-by-step workshop, they will paint the train and paint words of love, names of our loved ones, encouragement and positivity.

​The entire class can then link all the trains together and display them in a dazzling show of support and way to honor the immigrants who have helped shape and develop the US economy. This workshop is part of the 101 Create Ways to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, a teacher training designed to give educators some ideas on how to create a more memorable classroom experience. The workshop has over 75 groundbreaking, arts & crafts workshops for students from Kindergarten to Adult. For a complete list, please contact me now. 

The Junior ARTrepreneurs art workshop was commissioned to do a 1-day workshop at Jack & Jill of America. They voted on working on custom hats and everyone got involved! It was an amazing experience and I was able to speak to them about the benefits of creating custom artwork for sale. I wanted to make sure that I enforced upon them that they can turn their hobby into a paycheck. They were extremely excited about the prospects of selling their own artwork. I am looking forward to holding more short term workshops all over Santa Clarita and all over L.A. County. 

I visited the gallery space today and it was inspiring to see. I am looking forward to a great show. Announcements will be made during mass and help drive some traffic to the art show. I will continue to invite local business and media to try and attend. This is the last week, so make sure that you are still creating some art pieces. Create things you enjoy to paint. Think about the audience that will be at the church and the type of work they might be into. Think about the type of work your family and friends are into and make sure you have a little bit of everything! Whether you make 1 sale or no sales, the experience and knowledge you gain from stepping out of your comfort zone is what will give you the advantage. I am super proud of all the students this year. I am excited about Class #2 and am still working out the details for the next class! Stay tuned!

The Art Show will be held inside Slattery Hall #3. When you walk in through main entrance, make a right and walk towards the back (Near the double glass doors) There will be signage to help direct some traffic. It is directly across the gift shop. The show begins at 10:30am - 2:30pm. Please plan on arriving at 10am so that you can set up your table and price your work. Print out some custom order forms and have some change available for those customers paying in cash. You can buy small circle labels at office max and put prices on the work. None of the tables have table cloths, so feel free to bring a table cloth large enough for a 6 foot table and dress it up as you wish. I will provide each of you with a 5x7 table stand with your name on it. 

I am in the process of developing the curriculum for the second Jr. Arts workshop. Class One has been an amazing experience. There will be some changes to the second class. The previous class offered over 4 major projects and there just wasn't enough time to complete them all. This time, I may either extend the class time from 1.5 hours to 2 hours in length, or add 2 additional days. Also, Instead of adding 4 major projects, I will focus on 2-3 major projects. Stay tuned for updates. ​