The Big Sandy High School is in the early stages of installing a ceramics studio for the art education program. The long planned move is part of a larger facility upgrade for the program, which will eventually include a move to a larger classroom space. The ceramics studio is projected to be finished by the end of the calendar year. The efforts have been paid for by community fundraisers held last year, donations, and adult education funds.
The space for the new studio is the back room of the library, which has served as a sort of “catch all” storage space for years. Jessie Jaramillo, who teaches Art in Big Sandy, explaind, “We started this year with Stephanie Overbay and myself clearing out that far back room in the library. That’s going to be the new ceramics room. We have electrical work being done, hopefully in the next couple weeks. Then my brother, who’s a contractor, is coming up to help me tile the floor and get that all ready. So I’m hoping that we’ll be able to start some adult education classes in January. It should be awesome. That also means that I can start teaching some ceramic classes here at the high school, which I think is going to be the whole second semester. It’ll be nothing but clay stuff, because there’s a lot of students who have never been exposed to ceramics or done any sort of clay type of work. I always find that kids enjoy projects more when they get to physically work with their hands and make something. So, I’m really excited to teach them a brand new medium.”
JamariIlo says the ceramics studio will be upgraded over time. “My main goal is to get a kiln, and then we’re going to get clay and glazes and under glazes and some basic tools. Then it’s all going to be hand building stuff. If we ever decide to do pottery wheels, that’s just kind of a whole other level of ceramics, and it will need more things like a pug mill, which is a way to reuse and recycle clay that we’ve already used so we’re not just throwing away a bunch and wasting it. If we do something like that, that’ll be way further down the line. That’ll be like the next and final place that we go. But right now, I just want to get kids used to working with clay, and I feel like with hand-building, there’s a lot less waste with the clay, because we kind of use everything that we have. It’s easier to keep the clay usable, versus just when you’re throwing on the wheel, it gets so wet, so fast, and then you just have to put it through a pug mill, so that way it’s usable clay again. So we’re not quite at that stage yet.”
Eventually, the library and the art room will switch locations entirely. This is projected to take place towards the end of the school year. “That’s what I’m hoping for, is that we can get everything kind of switched and transitioned over where this room, where I’m at right now, will become the library. It’s going to be more of a condensed version of what we did have. We’ve been going through books. There’s just a lot of outdated stuff and books that kids don’t read anymore, and so we’ll be able to condense it down a little bit. We’ve also been, well, I’ve been taking classes down there to pick out books that we’re no longer keeping, and we’re kind of weeding out of the library. The kids get the opportunity to take books that they’re interested in, and they get to keep them for free, which is always nice.” During parent teacher conferences parents were given the opportunity to take books and members of the community were invited to look through and collect books. Jessie was clear that none of the books that will be weeded from the current library will be thrown away. They will be re-homed or up-cycled for later projects.
The ceramic studio is a result of the generosity of the Big Sandy Community and the school board. Jessie expressed gratitude for the support that made it possible: “A huge thank you for the people who came to the art show last year and donated money or participated in the silent auction items, because that’s going to be a huge part of what pays for this program to get up and going. Also a huge thank you to our school board and administration for being so supportive, encouraging, and using adult education funds to also kind of get this up and going. It has been just
See Page 6: Ceramics really amazing to see all of the support from our community and our school, that they want to see the arts program grow, that they’re just encouraging me to keep going, and that they’re offering whatever kind of assistance I need. So it’s been really wonderful.”
Later this year, the art program is looking is looking to put on another art show, likely sometime in May to showcase the work of students in the 7th through 12th grades. In addition, Jessie is hoping to have art classes help with sets and props for the play again this year.
Miss Jamarillo initially taught in Big Sandy for several years before leaving for 3 years. During that time, she found herself missing Big Sandy. “The longer I was gone, the more I wished that I had stayed up here, because I miss teaching art so much. So when the position became open again in 2022, I called Heather Wolery, and said ‘Hey, I want to come back.’ This is my fourth year back up here. Every year, it just feels more like home. I love it so much. It always surprises me when kids are so eager to graduate and go off and live their lives and I was like, I couldn’t wait to come back here”