At the end of the 2023-2024 school year, visual arts teacher Allyson Seal created the Staffulty Art Show. This exhibit is designed for any of Branson teachers and staff to share their self-created art.
Branson’s staffulty launched the exhibition in August 2024. The New House building was covered in the 16 Branson adults’ artwork, and it still remains ornate with pieces from knitting to photography.
Seal recalls “joy, pride and excitement” being a key component of this exhibit.
Seal spoke of how it’s so important to have these types of exhibits, especially at the Branson, because they allow the community “to see people in their complexity” and “in a much broader context.”
“How else would you get to see your math teacher’s high school creative work if it weren’t for an environment like this?” Seal said.
A Staffulty Art Show has never been done before at Branon in Seal’s 19 years at Branson. Its originality further enhances the excitement among the teachers who can exhibit their creative work and not be confined by their teacher role at Branson.
Alex Escalante, a Branson dance teacher, was one of the faculty to put up his photography, an art medium he may not be well known for as a dancer. Escalante said that this exhibit was launched “so that students and other faculty and staff that see it eventually come to the people that contributed and want to talk about what they are offering, what their perspective is and what their artistic voice is saying.”
Escalante also emphasized the urgency to have these conversations in order to further dive deeper into the art. This is achieved by “not just analyzing, but discussing the emotions evoked.”
Another one of the Branson teachers who contributed to this art show is math teacher Gretchen Koles. She contributed her various works of knitting, but also purposely included an unfinished piece to express the process of her work.
Koles said that the Staffulty Art Show gave a space for self-discovery. She said that it’s “kind of cool to think of yourself as an artist even if you’re not very artistic and to not define yourself and put yourself in a box but be open to new opportunities and step out of your comfort zone.”
Seal highlighted how “it’s a special exhibition and it’s worth making the trek up the hill to make some time for it” and encouraged students to “ ask a teacher whose work is on display about it.”
