One of the biggest challenges for visual arts programs in public schools can be the funding of necessary consumable instructional materials and durable instructional equipment. This year, visual arts teachers across the San Diego Unified School District are supported on both these fronts through different sources.

Consumable Instructional Materials

This past summer, the VAPA Foundation secured a massive donation of consumable instructional art materials, including over 7000 sets of paints (acrylics, oils, and watercolors), 3200 sets of paint brushes, and over 8400 canvases of various sizes. The instructional materials in these 25 pallets, valued at nearly $400,000, were then offered to visual arts teachers in the district, prioritizing visual arts programs with little to no instructional materials budgets.

CPMA graciously allowed the VAPA Department to use their black box theatre for distribution, and over the course of one week, 34 teachers loaded up vehicles with new materials for their students. These materials are now being used by students at all grade levels across the district.

"You should have seen the kids' eyes when they saw those paintbrushes," says Sarah Columbia, who teaches visual art at Mann Middle School and Standley Middle School. She describes her students' reactions to the donated materials as ranging from incredulity (“Oh, my gosh, do we get to use those?!”) to amazement (“Is that a fan brush?! I saw a guy in a video use one of those!”) to excitement (“Can we do an unboxing video of our canvases?”). "Better paintbrushes means better artwork," Sarah added.

Durable Instructional Equipment

In addition to this donation of materials, the VAPA Department allocated $200,000 to purchase new instructional equipment for visual art programs across the district. Teachers were able to request traditional art making equipment, digital art making equipment, and art display equipment. Forty-seven visual art teachers across the district submitted requests for equipment including kilns, slab rollers, pug mills, drying racks, printing presses, iPads, color printers, computers, 3d printers, and modular display panels. These items are in the process of being delivered to school sites to enhance visual arts programs districtwide.

Purchases of visual art equipment are often overlooked because school budgets focus on consumable supplies - which is natural, says VAPA Visual Art Resource Teacher Don Masse, since students need those supplies on a regular basis to make art. But, he adds, "because of this, durable equipment that can enhance and transform programs is often put on the back burner. With the VAPA support this year big things are happening: schools are restarting dormant ceramics programs, 2D art courses are incorporating 21st technology into the curriculum, on-campus student exhibits are being elevated with new display systems, and so much more."

The visual arts teachers that are being positively impacted by the materials donations and equipment purchases are so thankful for the support for their programs. The VAPA Department is looking forward to seeing student creative processes and products that are positively impacted by these new additions.

If you are interested in donating towards visual art materials for SDUSD students, please contact the VAPA Foundation.