Lakeland High school has an all-around great art program with a new elective they introduced this year. 

The current art teacher is Kristin Gravvtte and she says “ This is my 16th year at Lakeland High School. Even though I did not become an Art teacher until 2015, I worked in the library and started the Art Competition 14 years ago.” she then proceeds to say “My favorite part of being an art teacher is getting to share my passion for the arts with my students”

“I don’t know how long I will stay. Life is full of surprises.”

Ms. Gravatte has taken on a large number of different art classes throughout her time at Lakeland including Art 1-4, Advanced art, and even AP art. “The AP drawing and painting class that I started last year has been especially good for my own art, and I was so proud of the students’ success earning college credit,” she says.

Ms. Gravatte has now also played a part in the new Jewelry making elective which consists of “fiber art techniques and woodburning” and students are very anxious “to start the leathercraft, wire, and small stained glass projects later in the semester” so says Ms. Gravatte. 

Since it is her first year teaching this class she says “it’s a learning experience all around. Mrs. Miller and I have been bringing in guest artists to help teach some of the crafts.”  It’s a one-semester class as opposed to year-round.  

Sophomore, Leah Sphuler said that she enjoys the new jewelry class because she gets to have “creative freedom”. When choosing her electives this class caught her eye because she was interested  “to learn new things about jewelry.”

So far this year her favorite project they’ve done in the class is crocheting. 

As a teacher of this class, Ms. Gravatte says  “ I hope that the Jewelry class stays” She also mentions that “I think the Jewelry class works well with the Pottery classes because they can create their own ceramic beads, etc.” 

New classes and electives are introduced every so often and this is one of a few new to Lakeland this year. Many students chose to take it and seem to enjoy it as a new option very much.