A Real Life Happy Ending for Bishop Diego’s Art Program

In Bishop Diego High School’s Cinderella story, their newest art and ceramics teacher, Jennifer Tangel, plays the role of fairy godmother. In this tale, the somber princess in need of a makeover and some overdue TLC was the school’s art spaces.

Tangel sketched up a vision, and with the help of the community, she and her veteran teaching partner Leah Sodusta transformed the three spaces from dreary to cheery over the past year, starting in summer 2022. On May 16, they celebrated with a full-blown gallery featuring a year’s worth of work from all their student artists in the newly-renovated art sanctuaries.

“I hope that, if anything, I bring encouragement and joy to this place,” Tangel said. “I feel like the greatest masterpiece, in this whole world, is people. Like, if I can encourage kids — even if it’s not just art — that’s the best masterpiece.”

Sodusta had been patiently waiting for a change since she started teaching art at the school 18 years prior, and although the school was supportive, she said, other projects took priority. Tangel was the enthusiastic, magical force behind making Sodusta’s long-held dreams a reality.

But it didn’t happen with a mere wave of a wand — the teachers, their students, and even their own children volunteered their spare time almost every day over the summer to make the once stale studios and outdoor courtyard into places to inspire. “We wanted more light,” Tangel emphasized.

Drab brown walls, splattered paint cupboards, and saggy old shelves in the two classroom studios were replaced and revamped with fresh coats of paint courtesy of the school; tables and chairs were given new life with rainbows of color; and bright, beautiful student art pieces found refuge on the walls. Once messy and disorganized, the classrooms became clean, inviting spaces for limitless creativity and light.

On Back to School Night for the 2022-2023 school year, the art rooms shimmered with a gallery of students’ glow-in-the-dark painted landscapes and ceramic lanterns, which brought light to a particularly dark September night. Earlier that day, students were forced to evacuate due to a false alarm call that there was an active shooter loose on campus. 

“We didn’t know if parents and students would show up after so much stress that day, but they did,” Tangel said. “Out in the mostly empty courtyard we set up a table with the word ‘Dream’ highlighted by battery-operated candles. We shared our dreams for students enjoying the courtyard with some shade and seating and received an unequivocally enthusiastic response.”

For years, that outdoor courtyard acted as storage for old, rusty furniture. After putting out the call for support on Back to School Night, parents contributed more than what was asked of them to make sure the new lounging area was better than whatever folding chairs they could get at Costco.

Hundreds of volunteer hours later, it was revived into an art patio with a hand-painted koi mural, individually themed ceramic totems — which took students the full spring 2023 semester to design and craft — shaded areas, landscaping, and a brand-new outdoor furniture set.

Tangel said she didn’t want to organize a formal fundraiser for the renovations because she didn’t want to distract from ongoing fundraising for student scholarships, since almost every student at the private school receives some sort of financial aid.

The extra funding was not needed, however, thanks to community care. With the arts in many schools being the first to receive budget cuts, and considering the pandemic’s toll on students’ mental health, space for artistic expression plays the role of the glass slipper in reawakening students’ creativity and joy.

“When access to the arts deteriorates, mental health deteriorates,” Sodusta said. “Art is therapeutic. Children need space to be creative.”

A Real Life Happy Ending for Bishop Diego’s Art Program