About the CAC Member and Site (2018-2019):

Franny Wertimer is serving at Jubilee Arts, a community arts center that provides art and dance classes to residents of all ages in Sandtown-Winchester, Upton, and surrounding neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland.  Franny leads visual art classes for elementary school youth at Jubilee Arts, and also coordinates community exhibitions for the art gallery at the Jubilee Arts center.

"Student Growth"

This March at Jubilee Arts, I began teaching an experimental painting class with my elementary school students.  Most of my students have been in my classes since I started teaching visual arts at Jubilee in October. They continue to sign up for my class each 10 week session. It makes me happy to see the same students continuously return to take classes with me or another teacher. One of my students named Addison was very spirited and mischievous in my class in the first session that I taught her, and she would often purposefully make messes, or disobey specific things I asked her to do. Through the past three sessions I have seen her grow so much, from being a student who purposefully makes a mess, to one that is excited to help clean up. She has grown to take more care when it comes to her artwork and really push herself to execute designs that are difficult for her. She has worked on having more resilience when things don't go as planned, and she has become more of a leader in the classroom. When a new student came to our class this session and was too shy to speak in front of the class, Addison began engaging her by guessing her favorite color and making her feel more included in the classroom dynamic. It has been a joy to witness her confidence, maturity and leadership grow these past few months.