With the generosity of the LPS Foundation, I have been able to provide a professional art experience for my students. This year, the money is going for numerous items to continue supporting our students annual art show and gallery experience. Some of the materials purchased are consumable. These items include, plastic hangers to hang student artwork in our gallery and matte boards to uniformly mount and display each student's work just as if it were an art show at a university, a gallery, or even a museum. This sleek and professional way to display gives the students an elevated experience and pride in what it takes to participate in an art show. These matte board frames generally have a life span of about three years. Wood was purchased for a more permanent addition to our gallery. We need wooden platforms to display our sculptures that are part of our permanent LPS Legacy Gallery. As of right now, these sculptures are displayed on boxes filled with newspaper bundles and dressed in black butcher paper. These boxes are prone to tearing and wearing down and are not designed to be moved nor attach the sculptures securely. We have sculptures in our gallery representing students from as far back as 2001. A majority of the wood will be used to build sturdy display boxes that are moveable for cleaning, heavy duty enough that the sculptures can be secured to the base to prevent the artwork from being knocked off and damaged, and they are clean and sleek to provide a very beautiful and elevated viewing experience for all who attend our phenomenal art shows. Another non-consumable is the drawing boards. We were able to purchase 30 boards so that students can actually draw and paint Plein Air (in nature). These lightweight boards are easy to secure large sheets of paper with a rubber band and a bulldog clip. This prevents wind from blowing the paper away and it is lightweight for travel. We will start using these to actually do drawing studies of previous artwork that is on display just as is done in college when visiting an art gallery. My students helped design the boxes that we need and Mr. Cullison's students are building them for us. In turn, my students will paint the boxes and adhere felt to the bottom for easy transportability on the slick gallery floor that will not scratch the waxed tiles. Finally, ALL scraps are to be used for future art projects so that there is no waste. If you have not visited our gallery, or attended our annual art show (April 16th, 2026 at the LRC), I would love for you to stop by and see the amazing hard work that our students put in to make such an amazing event. A little side note, it is so exciting to see former students see their work on display after all of these years. I had one parent show her student the artwork she helped create when she was my student many years ago. This is something that I do not thing many, if any, other district provides. I think it is amazing because it allows buy in to our program and provides a sense of pride and accomplishment over a great span of time that is generally only allotted to trophy cases. This is a living gallery that grows over the years! We could not do this without your help AND many of the displayed projects were funded by the LPS Foundation Grant as well as other grants. Examples are the "Where the Wild Thing Heads" which were created to inspire struggling readers as a collaboration between high school students and LPS Kindergarten Academy. Those same heads went to competition for the LHS presentation of "Where the Wild Things Are". It houses three years of grant funded paintings for our Black History Programs, a huge prop dragon head created for the production of Beowulf, and a variety of other amazing works of art representing the legacy of visual arts from LPS.