Student artwork from the last five years of classes at San Benito Street Art Academy will be on display at Mars Hill Coffee House through the end of February as the local art school celebrates its fifth anniversary.
“My favorite part has been to provide a place and time for children to get together and be creative,” said Evelyn Pogrowski, the founder and teacher.
Since starting the San Benito Street Art Academy, Pogrowski has made some classes into an annual offering while she continues to add new classes to her curriculum which meets state standards. She said some of her favorite classes have been those that allow students to work with clay, such as the sessions offered in February, as well as those involving painting and drawing. In March, the sessions will include botanical drawing and painting on egg shells. In addition to learning to decorate the eggs, they will learn to preserve the hard-boiled eggs.
Pogrowski primarily works with children ages 7-11 from a variety of local schools, including some students who are home schooled.
“If you connect the right material or medium with a child a whole transition occurs,” she said. “They are able to get a way to express themselves.”
Pogrowski said she has 40 regular students and she can often tell which other art classes children may enjoy taking from her repertoire after working with them.
While the classes focus on a variety of different media, she said students also learn to develop team work and learn a vocabulary for critiquing art.
“I give them the tools and they find ways to express themselves,” she said. “I am training them to be team members and work forces are set up to be collective.”
One of her popular classes is a cartooning class which she described as “an idea class” because the students need to come up with a concept for their cartoon that includes characters and a storyline to go with their drawings.
“They do character development and I think it’s valuable they get to have their own identity,” she said.
One of the newer additions to the roster is a tools class which includes mechanical drawing. Pogrowski said the idea came to her when she had a saw, hammer and screw driver in class one day. The students were drawn to the tools. She decided to develop a class for them that incorporates mechanical drawing on grid paper.
“All my classes are one month so they get a taste of the featured medium,” she said, noting that she limits the classes to small groups.
Pogrowski gathered with some of the families who have participated in her classes through the years Feb. 14 at Mars Hill Coffee House for an “Art & Chocolate” celebration. Parents made chocolate snacks to share while the students showed off their pieces, which will remain on display through the end of the month.
Classes are available Monday through Thursday, from 2 to 3 p.m. or 4 to 5 p.m., for $10 per class meeting with a material fee of $10. For more information on upcoming classes, call Pogrowski at 831-760-6404
