Last Christmas the windows of Northwest’s front office were adorned with paintings of snowmen, Christmas trees, and other seasonal characters. Through the hard work of Art teacher, Julie Evers and the support of the Northwest Community, students are able to express their artistic abilities.
Evers is an essential part of the art education department and adds to the color throughout the school. The campus halls are full of students’ art pieces. This provides an amazing opportunity because it gives the students recognition and appreciation, but also brightens up the school.
Still, It takes time for artwork to be hung up, along with getting names on their art. Evers takes time out of her day to hang up the frames of students’ art pieces.
“Mrs. Anspaugh has been a huge supporter of this and made it possible for us to be able to get the frames,” said Evers.
District representative and Vice Principal, Amanda Anspaugh has shown Evers enough trust not to require her to check every painting that she hangs up with her. This saves Evers loads of time and thus allows her to get back to work sooner.
¨It makes me feel good for students to display their work to our student body. I have seen them take a lot of pride in having their work displayed, and I feel like it cheers things up. It’s been really nice¨ said Evers. ¨I love that we have current students as well as alumni representatives because it shows art students they can have art in their life after high school even if it’s not a career it can still be an important part of their life…¨
Along with the works on the walls, Northwest High School has a beautiful courtyard that sits in the middle of the building. Ms. Evers decorates this space in her free time to give the school a brighter outlook. She adorns it with fairy lights and cute window decorations.
On top of helping improve the atmosphere of the school, Evers previously helped run the Sunshine Club. This organization is a voluntary fund that teachers can choose to participate in.
If a fellow colleague has surgery or illness, loses a loved one, gets married, has a baby, retires, or leaves for another position the club will recognize them with a card and possibly a gift. They have as well acknowledged things like Secretaries Day, Principals Day, etc.
On top of all this, Evers is a coordinator for the art that gets hung up in the crossing mall. Schools across the county plaster their students’ artwork in the mall for the residents of Jackson to see.
“The countrywide show is very time-consuming because I am one of the coordinators with Brian Cooling from Concord High School, so he and I coordinate,” said Evers. “I reserve the space. I communicate with them about all the guidelines of the displays, how they have to be set up, and where they’re going to be located.”
She offers to help even outside of Northwest High School. Over the summer, she painted a picture for the Northwest Kidder Middle School Spanish teacher, Angela Klobuchar.
The painting consisted of an array of clouds and a beautiful sunset. From another perspective, you’re able to tell the amount of effort it took for her to express her creativity and artistic abilities.
Through all the efforts of Evers, she makes the community a more positive space through art. These are just a few examples that have shown just how much of an impact Evers did and will continue to have in the Northwest Community.
