Pears hold a fascination for the students in Marsha Hogue’s class.
“We talked about them and grouped them in different ways,” the Lake Highlands High School art teacher says.
The students saw that the pears, part of a still-life that Hogue put together, could convey such human qualities as inclusiveness and loneliness. Now, the students are attempting to demonstrate their ideas visually, using the pears as metaphors for life.
Such abstract work is important to this group of talented high school artists. The juniors and seniors hope to earn college credit through Hogue’s Advanced Placement art class, and learning to think creatively is critical to that effort.
“We want them to be designers of space rather than fillers of space,” says Hogue.
Over the course of the academic year, students complete 40 pieces of work and submit slides for evaluation by the College Board. Those who receive scores of three or above on a five-point scale can earn college credit.
Nationwide, 40 percent of students who attempt to earn advanced placement credit in art fail. Last year, Hogue’s failure rate was less than 14 percent. In previous years, when the national failure rate was set at 30 percent, all of Hogue’s students passed.
The Lake Highlands program benefits from a grant by the O’Donnell Foundation, which supports Advanced Placement art programs in 12 Dallas-area high schools. The foundation provides additional training for art teachers; financial incentives for teachers, students and schools; and special programs that allow students to meet and work with professionals in the art world.
Each fall, for example, the students participate in the program’s Super Saturday and spend a day immersed in the collections at the Dallas Museum of Art. They meet with prominent artists who discuss not only their own work but also the practical parts of the art world.
The students sketch and receive critiques from artists and teachers. And they have their work displayed in the museum’s FINA Gallery this year through April 11.
It’s an experience few of the students will forget.
“I never thought I’d do that,” says Victor Garza, who calls Super Saturday “awesome.”
