With these funds I will purchase high-quality academic level sketchbooks for every Art Student at KIPP: Empower Academy. 

It is really that simple.  Even the smallest donation, the price of 1 sketchbook (about $5.00) will bring creative opportunity to an underprivileged scholar.

The impact that a proper sketchbook and the right guidance can have on an emerging artist can be profound. Over the course of my last few months as an Art Teacher at the KIPP: Empower Academy,  I have seen young HUNGRY student artists.  They are brimming with creativity and potential, but often lack the supplies to put their brimming creativity into practice.  I kid you not, every single class, at least one student asks to take extra white "drawing" paper (white copy paper that I keep out for free-drawing practice). My students do not know the luxury of having real drawing paper.  Without this funding, they might not ever get to know that luxury. 

Breaking down prices:

• 5.5"x8.5" Canson Universal Sketch Pads (100 sheets): $5.01 ea. x 530 students = $2,655.30 (plus shipping)

Having a personal sketchbook for each student will teach them:

• The Artistic Process: That their doodles, and drawings are valuable, and a part of a bigger process than just "something I drew on a spare sheet of copy paper that got crumpled and lost".  They will be able to see their progress when they flip back through their pages and see their improvement (this is SO motivating for developing artists!).
• Responsibility: They will have all their drawings in one place, and they will be responsible for bringing them to class (this will help support the idea that Art Class is academic, and not a break or a transition). 
• Value: Having their own personal sketchbooks will be a really special thing.  It will be something they can personalize and make their own.  It will be an object they can share with teachers, friends, and family, or it can be something private just for them.  They will learn that their art has value when we show them that their art deserves to be completed on good quality paper and in a good quality bound sketchbook.  This is one of the greatest lessons of art education in my opinion. 

ANECDOTE TIME:

• This past week, I showed one student, Leighton, who stops in multiple times a day asking for extra drawing paper how to fold and staple sheets together to make his own mini-sketchbook.  His mind was blown, and he came back several hours later to show off how he had already filled all the pages with beautiful drawings and wanted to make another one. For students like Leighton, they are excited and hungry to get their creative ideas on paper, it's time to provide them the tools they deserve.

I would like to use these sketchbooks as a teaching tool in my classroom by assigning one drawing prompt per week for students to complete if they have free time in class, or after school.  We will practice basic drawing exercises that align with my own classroom art vision and research.  

Please share this cause and use the hashtag #Sketch4Scholars.

To further keep in contact with my classroom and my cause, please visit my Instagram page @Time4ArtClass Thank you! 

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