The deadline has passed. AP art students have been working furiously all year to finish the 24 individual artworks required to complete the AP studio art portfolio, and finally submitted their collection of work online last week. Now that all work is completed, it’s time for students to showcase their art in the annual AP Studio Art Show and Fundraiser.
The show, completely run by students, will take place Saturday, May 25 from 5-9 p.m. in the Village at Fairview.
Senior AP Drawing student Lauren Rivera has dedicated her senior project to planning the show.
“I’ve been developing posters and advertisements for our fundraising aspect of the art show,” Rivera said. “Each student is donating one piece to be sold so it can be auctioned, and all proceeds are going to Kiva, which is a micro-financing organization.”
Kiva is a nonprofit that provides small loans with the goal of alleviating poverty. The AP Studio Arts program started lending to Kiva 4 years ago, and has since lent to more than 48 small businesses, under the direction of AP Studio Art instructor Brice McCasland.
“I wanted a way for the kids [students] to give back, because I think that we live in a place where we are unbelievably blessed,” McCasland said. “The reason that I latched onto that [Kiva] when I started this is just because it makes sense to me as a way for us to touch a ton of people, and to really have a say in who we lend to, and it’s one of the only ways that I know that we can lend money out and then it comes back to us. So it becomes this legacy type thing, so that the amount of money every year will grow, and everybody that takes AP feels like they’re a part of that.”
Kiva runs on simple principles, making it easy for both the lenders and borrowers.
“In most parts of the world, it’s really hard for people to borrow money, because usually it comes with an exorbitant interest rate or really unfeasible payback options,” McCasland said. “So say that somebody needed a new wheel for their cart to take vegetables into whatever city they live near. What we look at, and we go ‘Oh, cool, go get a new wheel,’ for them, that’s months and months and months of work to actually pay for it. So through Kiva, in different parts of the world they can apply for a loan.”
These people will then post pictures online and provide information regarding the terms of their requested loan. Once a person has received a loan, they have nine months to pay back that money, with an interest rate comparable to that in the U.S. It essentially gives the people taking out the loans a springboard to start or continue their business.
“Not everybody has start up money. No everybody has the means to make it happen,” McCasland said. “So this is a way for people to really kind of chase their dreams. It can be simple like an oxcart, or it can be a group of people that come together, and maybe they make fabric and they need a couple thousand dollars to get the dye and the yarn to make these garments. For me it reflects this idea of hope because you’re really giving people a chance to pursue something.”
All AP students have selected a piece to donate, and the works can be previewed on the AP Studio Art Show and Fundraiser Facebook page.
“It’s kind of a bittersweet thing [donating an artwork],” Rivera said. “It’s hard to think that a piece that you put so much time into isn’t going to not be yours anymore, but you know that it’s going for a better cause and that feels good, knowing that your art can play a part in changing someone’s life.”
