Editor:
It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this letter. While I was attending Encampment School I understood that talk about closing the art program was something being discussed within the hierarchy of the school system. However, I do not fully understand why this change is being put into effect.
I transferred to Encampment School in fourth grade. Since then, art was one of my favorite classes; I felt like it was my home away from home.
I learned so many things through the art program. We did not just dwell on putting color on paper, or cutting pictures out of magazines.
Many times we did research to help us understand our projects. That helped me understand the changing and unknown world around me.
While in secondary school, there were so many opportunities presented to me. It helped me, as a growing adolescent to utilize both sides of my brain, using my left side to think logically, and my right side to be more intuitive, thoughtful, and subjective.
High school students are bound to have bad days, whether it’s bullies, family or just trying to fit in. We have a lot of social interactions on our minds.
Art, drawing, sculpting, painting, dyeing, and so much more was a way for me to get all of that off of my mind.
If the art program were not instilled into the curriculum while I was attending Encampment School, I am not sure that the school would have been a place where I would be proud to call my alma mater.
Art let me express and create my identity, when no one wanted to hear it. Without this opportunity throughout high school, I cannot say that the high school experience would have been the best that it could have been.
There is one last point to be made, and this has impacted me greatly. Through the positive reinforcement of hearing people congratulate me on a piece of artwork or to see someone generally interested in something I created, means the world to me.
The passion I found I possessed using art helps me greatly through activities I am involved in today.
For example, breaking an uncooperative colt, at my job working in the University of Wyoming Meat Lab, groups, clubs and organizations that I am involved in.
I would not have the work ethic or the passion to accomplish anything I set my mind to without the clarity of life that art has shown me in primary and secondary school.
In college today, art is still something I highly cherish. I learned through the art program to express any emotion that cannot be put into words, through art.
When I am experiencing a stressful finals week, or have had a long day at work, 20 minutes with a piece of charcoal and a sketchbook can change my mood unexplainably.
This stress relief is something that I would not experience had I not had the foundation of artwork through school and growing up. I would not have found this part of my identity that I am so proud of, and that helps me greatly with academics.
Through this letter, I hope that you understand what a huge aspect of life is being taken away from the students at Encampment School, and just how important this program is to students.
I cannot express enough how much I hold the experiences from state art, art trips across states, and just sitting down in the art room for 47 minutes, in my heart.
I hope the hierarchy sincerely thinks about what impact this decision is going to be placed on the students.
Thank you for your time,
Abbey Davidson
College of Agriculture Ag Ambassador
Past State Wyoming FFA Officer, Laramie
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