Front row from left, Jessie Ross, Mountain Elementary; Claire Stewart, LAMS; Stephanie Rittner, Pinon Elementary. Back row from left, Dottie Lopez, LAHS; Britt Williams, Aspen Elementary; Andrea Lynch, Chamisa Elementary; Mary Grace, LAHS and Elizabeth Fisher, LAMS. Not pictured, Libbi Lovejoy, LAHS. Courtesy/Step Up Gallery
STEP UP GALLERY News:
The much anticipated 2025 All Schools Student Art Show showcases the work of hundreds of Los Alamos Public Schools (LAPS) students in Step Up Gallery at Mesa Public Library. Step Up Gallery hosts this exhibit, which runs Feb. 20 to March 12.
LAPS celebrates Student Art Month with an exuberant display of art representing students from Pre-K through high school seniors. The public is invited to the opening reception 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the upper-level rotunda outside the gallery. Refreshments are provided thanks to a donation from the Los Alamos Schools Credit Union.
The district’s art teachers go above and beyond to prepare the show for hanging. They are collecting and labeling the art works, planning how work will be displayed, choosing representative pieces and boxing things up to transport to the gallery.
This year, the art team effort is led by Los Alamos Middle School art teachers, Claire Stewart and Lisa Fisher. In addition to preparing their own students’ work for exhibition, they are coordinating the timing and communication between members of the art team and Step Up Gallery managers Katy Korkos and Diane Stoffel.
Stephanie Spanier-Rittner is one of the veteran art teachers in this creative team. She has been teaching for 33 years and teaching art at LAPS for most of them. She said she finds art education essential for students.
“Art education cultivates imagination, creativity, self- expression, problem solving and critical thinking,” Spanier-Rittner said. “Art education helps develop fine motor skills and helps encourage social-emotional well-being through creativity.”
She prepares for up to 350 students each week in her classroom at Piñon Elementary in White Rock. Her students are inspired to work within a theme – many of the pieces in this year’s exhibit will be about sheep, wool and fiber.
“This is strenuous work!” Spanier-Rittner said. “The most rewarding part is watching the students become proud of their own creativity.”
Britt Williams teaches elementary art for students from PreK through 6th grade. She’s been doing it for 13 years with LAPS. Williams said she enjoys showing students a new kind of art, medium, or technique and building out projects where students can explore these ideas, materials and techniques. She likes to have all of the students put what they’ve learned into one large piece of collaborative art.
“This year we studied the artist Jen Stark and created an entryway installation with brightly colored drips and geometric and organic shapes where each student’s piece of art was featured,” Williams said.
Libbi Lovejoy teaches Ceramics and Sculpture at Los Alamos High School (LAHS). She talks about coming full circle with her art teaching for LAPS.
“I am a LAHS Alumni, and my Elementary Art teacher is still in the district, Stephanie Rittner. Many of my teachers are now colleagues, which has been fun.”
She also credits an amazing theatre teacher in high school with bringing a level of professionalism to the high school productions. She is paying back that experience by helping to sponsor the Topper Revue, which closed last weekend.
She said she finds joy in the wide range of different projects that students make.
“I get to know their interests, passions, and see a different side of them that Core teachers never get to know,” Lovejoy said. “The only restrictions that I put on students is that everything needs to be school appropriate.”
Jessica Ross, who teaches visual arts at Mountain Elementary, said she works hard to create an environment for students in which they feel comfortable to explore their own artistic abilities.
“I love seeing my students work with a variety of mediums to create a piece of work they are proud of,” Ross said.
She said she tries to introduce her students “to a variety of different artists and art forms, from Van Gogh to Ted Harrison, Jim Dine to Basquiat and many, many more.”
Dottie Lopez, digital art and photography instructor at LAHS, closes each email with this quote: “The true purpose of art education is not necessarily to create more professional dancers or artists. It’s to create more complete human beings who are critical thinkers, who have curious minds, who can lead productive lives.” –Kelly Pollock
Step Up Gallery (https://stepupgallery.org) is on the top level of Mesa Public Library in Los Alamos, at 2400 Central Ave. The gallery is open the same hours as the library: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and 1-5 p.m., Sunday.