Art Department Is Awarded Grant

Sarah Church/Staff Writer

This school year, returning students may have noticed several significant changes around the high school, including a new ALPHA room and the conversion of the ERC (English Resource Center) into the Learning Lab. The art department in particular has benefited in the new term after being granted HP laptops for its beginning and advanced level digital photography classes.

After a denied application for the Christiansen Grant in 2010, art teacher Lisa Klenske was excited in finding the art department its lucky winner in 2011. “I like having the laptops in the art room so all of the art department is in the same area. Last year, I was out of the room about half of the time, so this year it is nice to stay in one room and help out the students who need it,” Klenske said.

The grant awarded $27,000 to the department, helping buy 28 HP laptop computers equipped with software like Adobe Creative Suite 3.0, which includes Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. “Our software is the best, it is the industry standard in professional photography,” Klenske said.

Students especially appreciate the new computers and their convenient location. Students feel it will better their education in art and make it a more fullfilled experience.
“I think they are great because we don’t have to move anywhere to use them and if we have a question we can bring the computers with us,” senior Hannah Riebeks said.