The Blaffer Gallery’s Young Artists Apprenticeship Program won the Coming Up Taller Award for a 2008 exhibit done by students from five Houston Independent School District high schools. The award was presented by first lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday.
The Blaffer Gallery held an exhibition, Young Artist Apprenticeship Program: Trailer Atelie, for Fall 2009 on Friday in honor of the YAAP recipients and received $10,000 in support of the program.
‘This is the first time a program from Houston has won. Being the pioneer of the award from Houston is a great accomplishment,’ assistant curator of education Katy Lopez said.’
‘Not only for our staff here, but more so it’s a compliment to our students that we have had over the lifetime of the program.’
The award was presented to Katherine Veneman, curator of education for the Blaffer Gallery, and winner Jessica Flores.
‘We hope this will be an opportunity to expand the program in the future. We realize there is a great need for it and we are on the right track,’ Veneman said.’
‘We love that we are here at UH because it is such a place of learning and growth for youth.’
The five high schools that make up the program are Stephen F. Austin High School, Cesar Chavez High School, Eastwood Academy, Milby High School and Yates High School.
‘ The program consists of a total of 12 students who are mentored by two artists. Since Spring 2008, the mentors have been Patrick Renner, a teacher at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and Audry Herber, a jewelry and metalwork instructor at Houston Community College.
‘I was ecstatic to get the job; it’s great to be affiliated with UH and with the gallery,’ Renner said.
Renner said he enjoyed working with the students from 2008 and 2009.
‘They have a lot of good energy. It’s important to recognize that they are here after school,’ Renner said.’
‘So, it’s because they want to do it; they’re not being forced to complete the program.’
The YAAP awards two students with the Martha Meier Scholarship for excellence in art with a $1,000 and $500 scholarship at the end of the year.
A committee decides who receives the scholarships, but the choice falls mainly on Renner and Herber.
‘It was a tough decision,’ Renner said. ‘It was really a narrow race; the two that ended up standing out, they had a lot of competition,”
This year’s scholarship winners were both seniors from Milby High School – Desiree Chagoya and Jessica Hernandez. They were also the only students from Milby on this year’s YAAP roster.
‘ ‘I had already been in the program once before,’ first place scholarship winner Chagoya said. ‘I really doubted myself. I started crying (when I won); the others were good at drawing and I was off and on.’
Chagoya said she credits what she sees around her, family and mentors, for her inspiration.
Hernandez, who won the second place scholarship, said winning the award was a surprise.
‘At first, it was really unexpected. Now, winning the award, I wouldn’t have thought about it if I didn’t even know there was a scholarship,’ Hernandez said.
‘I didn’t make it my priority to win it. I just went to the program because of the art.’
Hernandez said the YAAP allowed her to broaden her artistic tools beyond paper.
‘Before, I did doodles, sketches in my notebook. Coming here, they had different materials to work with; it was really different from what I’m used to,’ Hernandez said. ‘It wasn’t hard at all; it was fun. I love trying new things.’
Chagoya and Hernandez’s art teacher at Milby, Betty Waki, said she was proud of her students for their hard work and receiving the scholarships.
‘(It) makes me very happy because they are such good students that work hard,’ Waki said.’
‘They’re serious, they’re responsible, they’re creative and it’s just really good to see them get an award for that.”
Herber said one of the benefits of the YAAP is the introduction of new materials for the students.
‘They know how to paint and know how to draw and we try to pull them out of that box. A lot of them have never experienced three dimensional art,’ Herber said.’
‘Patrick and I are not really showing anything too different from the past programs. I think we are the first 3-D’ers to have worked with YAAP, but that’s basically because we learn that way.’
