Grateful for arts partnership between Homer High and Bunnell

I am writing to express Homer High’s gratitude for legislative support for funding that goes towards Bunnell Street Arts Center. We are also grateful for community members who generously donated toward our bake sale. Because of this support, our school was able to participate in Artist in the Schools. This program is made available through Bunnell Street Arts Center with support from the Alaska Legislature which funds Alaska State Council on the Arts, thus providing matching support from Rasmuson Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Ulmer’s Drug and Hardware, Global Credit Union, First National Bank, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. Because of this partnership, students in our community had the opportunity to engage in artistic exploration with talented visiting artist, Ethan Lauesen.

While participating in the Artist in the Schools Program, upper level Homer High students were exposed to a new planographic printing process called mokulito, which is not available within our typical curriculum. Student works are currently displayed in the school library for all to enjoy. Students were able to intuitively respond to provided media and express their own unique interests within their prints. With varying printing results students had to decide how to continue their process to develop an artwork they were willing to critique.

Inviting currently practicing and exhibiting artists into our schools exemplifies the importance of investing in the arts. As upper level students begin exploring their career interests, it is beyond valuable to see how adult artists practice and contribute to our community. Ethan exemplified this by teaching our students while concurrently exhibiting work and engaging in residency at Bunnell Street Arts Center. The impact of programs such as Artist in the Schools, extends far beyond our school walls and brings possibilities for our students’ futures.

Olivia Philpot, art/ceramics teacher

Homer High School

An ode to public workers

I recently attended a local event in which we had some state representatives present a bill that was aimed at securing pension for public workers. At this event, I kept internally cycling all the woes and complaints I have as a teacher. In my mind, no one has it worse than me. Yes, I know, “boo hoo.”

Though I kept my complaints silent, others did not. A public assistance worker stood up and voiced her frustration that her specific profession was not acknowledged in the presentation, and you could feel everyone else tense up, because, of course, don’t we all want to be specifically acknowledged? It can feel as if no one seems to know or acknowledge how hard we have it.

However, in a humbling turn of events, it became very apparent that the weight of working for the public extends far beyond what I was aware of or acknowledged. When you are a public worker who works for and with people, you see the sides of humanity that others get to pretend don’t exist, and that’s a burden.

Public assistance workers, while trying to get support to disadvantaged people, witness people die before they ever receive support (the number of people dying of malnutrition is continuously increasing). Public school teachers are made aware of just how many kids come from traumatic situations (more than you’d like to think) and have the burden of trying to make these students feel normal and respected, even if the outside world refuses to offer them dignity.

First responders see and hear the real-life “Final Destination” moments that we all pretend only happen in horror movies. Our public health workers put aside their judgements to work and save people who are beaten, broken, and often causing harm to themselves and others. And what about the people sacrificing their safety and well-being to ensure we have safe roads, forests, cities, airports, etc.?

To be a public worker is to live in the space between gratitude and grief. We are grateful for the chance to serve, but grieve for the cost it takes. We are asked to absorb frustration, extend compassion, and hold the line when no one else will. If the measure of a society is how it treats its people, then, by golly, public workers are the heart of this country.

Donica Nash

Soldotna