HOPKINSVILLE, KY (CHRISTIAN COUNTY NOW) – Paula Gieseke, an art teacher at Christian County High School, told the Hopkinsville Rotary Club on Tuesday that the art department for both Christian County High and Hopkinsville High is in need of more funding.

Currently, Gieseke’s art program has 327 students participate in art courses at her school. When Gieseke first started the position, she was surprised by the talent and the outstanding young men and women who sat in her classroom. “These are our future leaders of the community and they want to create things,” Gieseke told the Rotary Club.

She also shared that her students across the district are winning art competitions and want to further their skills by creating more. However, the department is lacking funding for basic supplies and other things.

Gieseke held up a piece of cardboard that acts as a paint palette for her students. She also showed Rotarians how her students conserve paint by keeping it in a plastic cup in a Ziploc bag. “Students are creating beautiful works of art even though we don’t have the higher cost supplies that we sometimes need,” Gieseke said. “I have become the recycling queen.”

According to Gieseke, the art department charges students a $20 fee to join. Only about 50% of students pay that fee because of the free and reduced lunch program. Gieseke said the program is at full capacity and students who are wanting to join, cannot.

Senior Brylee Barnes, president of the art club and editor of the yearbook shared with Rotary why funding art is important. “Art is not a luxury, it is a cornerstone of our culture,” Barnes said.

“Our art is often regulated to the sideline of public funding problems,” said senior Kaleigh Shaw, vice-president of the art club and co-editor of the yearbook.

Gieseke added that the art department cannot host fundraisers for specific classes as only after school clubs and organizations can raise money within the school. She shared future hopes of creating more murals in Hopkinsville and doing a big community service project twice a year with her students.