OVS Upper Campus art teacher Chia Hersk is still peeling the stickers off of her new classroom windows. 
For more than 50 years, the Ojai Valley School art department sat in the same building at the bottom of campus—far away from the bustling classrooms and energetic students of the school.
Now – in a renovation of classrooms 9, 10 and 11– the school has a new art room, which has been dubbed “The Studio.” The name is spelled out in big, black typeface on the Western-most wall of the building looking out toward campus.
“My students are never late to class now,” said Ms. Hersk about one of the benefits of the new location.
Senior India Getty-Pruss is enthusiastic about the remodel.
“I think it’s really great to be at the top of the hill because all the other classes are at the top of the hill,” India said. “Sometimes I’d have class twice a day and I would walk down the hill, and then walk back up, and then walk back down, and then walk back up.”
She is the only art student in the senior class who has participated in art every year of high school. She is currently working on her second year of AP studio design. India began in her freshman year in Drawing 1 and worked her way to focus on fashion design, which she plans to major in during college.
“It really integrates the art [program] with the rest of the classes,” India noted about the new building.
Despite some confusion on campus, the new art room was never initially part of the plans for the new buildings that were opened last year to replace those lost in the 2017 Thomas Fire.
After years of construction, three new buildings were opened last year – the Aramont Science and Technology Center, the Grace Hobson Smith House dormitory, and the Littlefield Student Commons dining and library complex.
However, spurred by money from an anonymous donor for a new art room, the school devoted money to the project, and found a few other donors, to allow “The Studio” to be built.
“It wasn’t part of the plan necessarily to be done in conjunction with [the new building],” said Head of Upper Campus Craig Floyd, who has dealt with much of the organization and response to the Thomas Fire. “It was being done by two separate contractors, two separate projects.”
A large donation was made by an anonymous donor and previous contributor to the school; that donor chose to remain unnamed in order to focus on the students.
In many ways, “The Studio” marks the completion of a five-year-long building project since the Thomas Fire, and it has connected the OVS campus and art department in ways not seen since the founding of the Upper Campus.
“Curious students are coming in and out now… just becoming aware of OVS art,” Ms. Hersk said. “This new space definitely revitalizes our program.”
