Kate Marsh of the Frontier Art Center has always had a vision for the arts in Harney County for all ages. Of course, art is offered in the Middle School and High School, but afterschool extracurricular options were needed. So many of our youth who are not in sports end up wandering on their own…and coming up with their own entertainment. In the summer of 2025, Kate collaborated with a recently retired art teacher from the Middle School, Colleen Andersson, and an art program for teens emerged. Kayla Maxwell soon joined the team to organize events that would be kid friendly.

The goal was to offer free art classes with food provided, which required a step of faith that funding would become available someday. Fortunately, Glory Days was happy to provide them with a space to host some of their classes.

It started out slow, but has quickly gained momentum. They went from five participants to 15 and often as many as 18. The middle schoolers meet at the Frontier Art Center for painting and snacks. High schoolers meet at Glory Days for pizza, pop, and painting. Each group meets once a month.

This past winter, High Desert Partnership offered five grants of $5,000 each that would be awarded to seed small-scale, grassroots projects, such as community events, gardens, gatherings or festivals. At least two awards would be reserved for youth-led initiatives. Kate, Kayla, and Colleen submitted an application. They were awarded a grant for our youth art program, summer art camps and art show sometime in the Fall!

So here we are, after a successful year of free art classes for our youth, serving between 25 and 35 participants each month. May 12 was our last session for the 2025/2026 school year, but we’re not done there.

They now look forward to the summer art camps. For one week each summer month, for three hours each day in the afternoon, they will offer art lessons, snacks, and fun for ages 7 to 12. This summer program will be supervised by Kayla Maxwell and Emily Kokesh with Colleen Andersson and other local artists teaching the art lessons. They are looking for responsible and artistic high schoolers to help with these camps.

Looking ahead to next school year, more art classes will be offered to our youth. They are still evaluating if they’ll keep the same format, or move forward with a new twist. Looking back on the successes of this year and how much fun everyone had, they are sure next year will be even better.