Creating and Educating: After art teacher Adam Finkelston started East’s new art gallery, three artists and faculty members share about their work

Adam Finkelston

Art teacher Adam Finkelston has wanted an art gallery at East for 10 years — a place for students, staff and local artists to showcase and display their work. But with a shortage of space — some teachers having to teach in as many as four classrooms — there was nowhere for the gallery to go.

Until this past February.

The new common space extension was added to the north side of the building and with it two new classrooms were built — creating a space for the gallery. But even with more classrooms, East is still short of space. However, the gallery was a sacrifice Principal Jason Peres was willing to make to better the school community.

After weeks of long and exhausting conversations with Peres about how to use the space and Finkleston garnering support from other staff members, Finkelston met with Peres in his office early this year where the final decision was delivered.

The art gallery was going to happen.

The office space in Room 225, a class room in the entrance to the art wing, was relocated and set aside to host art such as paintings and sculptures. 

After 17 years of developing the art program — teaching classes and working hours outside of school — Filnkleston’s vision was coming true. 

“It just felt really good to have support,” Finkelston said. “We actually had serious conversations about the gallery and it was something that I felt like [Peres] was really behind.”

When construction of the commons began in February, the room was unloaded and the custodial staff wiped a new coat of white paint on the walls and buffed the floors. Art department teachers helped set up display stands and racks along the walls to hold art pieces, even adding an extra display case and wall art in the commons due to an overflow of art.

The first exhibit, which is currently open for viewing during seminar and after school, showcases faculty members’ art with some of Finkleston’s own work on display. His hope is for the space to not only benefit the art department but also educate students in all classes.

Jennifer Horn

Math teacher Jennifer Horn had driven 30 miles to a house in Leavenworth, Kansas to pick up a fresh load of her favorite playtoy: scrap metal.

She’d received an email from a man named Shawn who had seen her work on Facebook Marketplace asking if she could weld a farmer metal man for him. He had all of the metal for the project — all she needed to do was pick it up.

Walking up to the house, she noticed a metal peacock sculpture with a big piece of steel for the body and feathers sticking up in the back sitting on top of a car spring, rocking back and forth in the wind.

“I loved it and I thought I would love to have a fish that rocks back and forth.” Horn said.

After completing his order for the metal man, Horn got to work on her own spin of the rocking peacock. Horn has loved fishing since she was six years old, and now she and her husband go on fishing trips together. Inspired by her hobby of fishing, Horn welded a giant fish with a car spring for a base.

Now her sculpture titled “Rocking Fish” lives in the East art gallery.

Horn first attempted to create the piece from a car muffler scavenged from the scrapyard where her husband used to work — but she decided it looked nothing like a fish. To create the proper shape Horn would have to try something new, making the framework of the piece from scratch.

“I had to take skinny pieces of metal and bend it and actually make the frame of the fish which I hadn’t had to do on many other [projects],” Horn said.

After three months of working on-and-off in her garage, welding together spoons, small pieces of metal and a giant car spring, the fish was done. Shortly after, Finkelston sent an email to the school staff asking for pieces to showcase. Horn was happy to volunteer her fish and another piece emphasizing her fishing passion — an oversized scuba helmet.

“I just think it’s good for kids to know that teachers are human beings also and that we do have stuff outside of work,” Horn said.

Welding takes Horn’s mind off of the stress of teaching and allows her to relax and focus. Handling her fire-blasting welding gun and creating even lines along repurposed pieces of scrap metal takes all her focus.

Sometimes when she can’t sleep, Horn will skip reading a book and instead head to the garage to weld in the hopes that it will calm her down and tire her out enough to go to sleep. Her cousin and close friend Denise Kull has seen how welding calms Horn down.

“It puts her mind on something and when she’s focusing on just that, she doesn’t have to really think about anything else,” Kull said. “She can focus on being creative and making the item that she has her goal set on.”

Price Wright

While custodian Price Wright spends weekdays running around East cleaning the cafeteria and fixing up the gym before and after school, he spends weeknights and weekends in his art studio.

“I’ll go downstairs in my art studio in my house and I’ll just sit there and I’ll paint,” Wright said.

Wright has followed multiple passions in life. He originally planned on playing professional football but after sustaining three-and-a-half years of football injuries, he decided to pursue his family trade of carpentry instead.

One day a job ad in the local paper caught his eye: the Shawnee Mission School District was hiring carpenters. He went in for an interview and started the next day. When Wright began having mobility trouble with his hand, the district moved him to East to do building maintenance.

Twenty-seven years later, Wright is still working in the district as a custodian at East. But in his free time he paints on rolls of canvas or pieces together wooden sculptures, combining his carpentry skills with his creative side. Since before his son Collin was born, Wright created and sold his artwork.

“Growing up, you just knew he was the artist in our family,” Collin said. “He’s known as somebody who’s very creative, someone who can really do just about anything. He’s very talented. He’s one of the most talented people I’ve literally ever met.“

One of Wright’s works in the gallery titled “The GOAT” was made at the request of Collin.

Collin asked his dad to paint a tribute to late NBA player Kobe Bryant. The two have always respected Bryant not only for his basketball skills but for his attitude and how he motivated young people. The painting depicts Bryant in the middle of the canvas facing away from the viewer. He is surrounded by other famous basketball players Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Wilt Chamberlain and Julius Erving.

“That’s the reason I called it GOAT because all these guys did something in life,” Wright said. “You have to become a legend and if you didn’t become a legend, you wouldn’t be on [my painting].”