Over the past year and a half, the school finished many impressive renovations to the building. All of the art spaces — for Pottery, Draw/Paint, Photography, and Digital Art and Design — have been completely renovated to provide a better creative learning space.

Mike Jaramillo, the Draw/Paint teacher, explained what renovations have been made.

“We knocked down all of our offices that were inside this giant studio here and now we […] changed our dark room, we moved it. And then we had an old computer lab, so now we have a smaller dark room because we only use it for screen printing and no longer photography,” said Jaramillo. “So we moved the original dark room and the original computer lab, and now we added Ms. Feeney’s Digital Art and Design computer lab and a multi-use room that allows us to present in that room while another class is out in the studio.”

In fact, the art room teachers designed the new space.

“The school actually gave us almost complete control on how to design it and how we wanted to design the art room so all the art teachers could teach in it together. We wanted more of an open concept where all the kids would learn together,” said Jaramillo. “Since we’re project based classes, Ms. Feeney’s Digital Art and Design class can work in this space, the same way that my Drawing and Painting Two class can work in this space.”

Sophomore Hannah Wang felt that the room’s renovations inspire creativity for art students.

“I feel that when I’m in a better environment, I naturally want to do better work,” said Wang.

Sophomore Deven Lemercier added on how the room has developed beneficially since last year.

“It’s much less noisy, it’s much more cooperative, and you can interact with other artists better, and I think it’s just a better space overall,” said Lemercier.

Jaramillo agreed that the art room is much better than last year.

“The new art room is amazing. Everything is brand new and everything works. So, I love it. It’s night and day,” Jaramillo said.

Wang has enjoyed learning and creating in the new space so far.

“I really like the new art room. Although I’m only doing Draw/Paint, I noticed the changes to the Digital Art and Pottery spaces too. I saw how they added a kiln room, connected some of the rooms and just made the art section bigger. The glass walls and windows were such a cool addition as well,” she said.

Lemercier agreed that the new art room is fantastic.

“I really like how it’s open and airy, and it really adds to the creativity and to the feel of the room overall,” he said.

“I love the art room,” said Jaramillo. “I’m so happy.”