by Suelin Low Chew Tung
On Thursday, 21 March, Assistant Lecturer for Art and Design at T A Marryshow Community College (TAMCC) and Chair for the Department of Arts, Humanities and General Studies Andrea McLeod, and students in her afternoon class were delightfully surprised to receive art supplies donated by a local corporate sponsor and delivered by Art House 473.
Richard Nixon of Hideaway True Blue donated deluxe art sets to Art House 473, located in Calliste, so that young people have encouragement to create, but when the need was recognised at TAMCC, that donation was shared to enable the students to have the materials needed to draw and paint.
Year 1 students Hadasseh St Bernard and Simeon Marcelle were on hand to receive the donation comprising 1,225 pieces of various art supplies, including paint brushes, acrylic paints, crayons, colouring pencils, oil pastels, and drawing pads.
According to McLeod, this donation is going to be a massive help. “This year we doubled our intake of art and design students, so there’s been a real pressure for resources. This is going to be a really good boost to ensure that all students can use and experience a range of media in their art practice.”
Currently, there are about 20 Year 1 students and 10 Year 2 students taking art at TAMCC.
Of the variety of media supplied, McLeod said, “There’s also some nice pastel pads and watercolour pads in there, again making sure that everybody can get the chance to paint and to experiment with dry media such as the pastels. We are very excited to start using them. On behalf of this year’s students, and next year’s students, thank you Richard Nixon and thank you Art House 473.”
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost of art supplies has increased by 40%, making it even more difficult for beginning artists and students taking art at secondary and tertiary levels.
Art House 473 believes more local corporate, and diaspora sponsorship of art materials to local schools offering art, will help ensure students can focus on the creativity aspect to execute their assignments without worrying about the cost and availability of materials.
