College-level high school course requires hard work

WASILLA — In Mrs. Allison Little’s 5th hour art class at Wasilla High School, nine AP art students, juniors and seniors, work furiously on 24 different art projects against the clock for the College Board deadline. The buzz of work and the idle chatter is like time travel into a Greenwich Village art studio.

For AP art students, a college-ready portfolio is required by the end of this year-long class. The portfolio contains 24 art projects that have been worked on feverishly from June up until May of the following year. Not every AP Art student may end up submitting a completed project, but the experience and process can prepare them for assorted art fields.

“I want the students to have options.” Mrs. Little said. Stressing that after high school she hoped AP art students would have the choice of teaching or selling art, becoming architects, tattoo artists, hair designers or whatever else they set their mind toward.

AP Art differs from a more typical AP class. For a standard AP class such as AP Literature or AP Biology, students take an end-of-the-year AP exam to decide whether or not they will receive college credit for the class. However, in AP Art, it is the completed portfolio mailed to the College Board that serves as their final exam.

At the end of the year, AP Art students also can submit their work into juried art shows. Students prepare professional artist statements and learn the skill of matting and preparing work for exhibition. Finally, at the end of the year, these Wasilla High artists present at Senior Night, where they are able to show and sell their work in a gallery style.

The course is not an easy one and frightens off all but the most serious students. It is open only to juniors and seniors who need to have had at least one art studio class as a pre-requisite. Even before school starts in the fall, four projects are to be completed and turned in before the class begins.

Megan Green, a senior in Little’s class, explained that she was dubious at first about taking AP Art. She knew how difficult the firm deadlines of only nine days sandwiched between each project would be. But, now she is glad she did. Before the class she wasn’t sure about what she wanted to do with her art. That changed with AP Art.

“I don’t know where I’m going,” she said. “But, I know I want to go somewhere.”

Jessica Frankel is a junior at Wasilla High School