News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Mike Baynes and his students have made Sisters High School an art gallery.
Mike Baynes’ art students think he’s the best high school art teacher around.
The Oregon Art Education Association thinks so, too. The organization awarded the Sisters High School art teacher its “Secondary Art Teacher of the Year Award” at its fall conference in Portland on October 14.
“I’m humbled and I’m just honored to get that,” Baynes told The Nugget. “I think it’s pretty cool to be recognized after 28 years of commitment and passion for the arts.”
Baynes is in his 29th year inspiring students — his 14th in Sisters. Sisters High School has become renowned for its many arts-related events and for the impressive displays of student art that adorn the walls of the school.
That’s something Baynes has always thought important. When he was a student, a teacher displayed his work in that way and it gave him valuable inspiration and a sense of the worth of his art.
Baynes has displayed his students’ work right from the start.
“I pounded holes in the walls of our brand new high school and the administration looked at me like ‘What are you doing?’” he recalled. “And I put up art work in the school from the first day I was here.”
Baynes also led his students in creating an annual Coffeehouse for the display of their art work in conjunction with music performances by students. He also initiated the Empty Bowls project, in which students throw clay bowls which are then filled with soup and purchased in a dinner fund-raiser for Sisters Family Access Network (FAN).
Baynes believes that such community events were part of the criteria that led to his award.
Baynes was nominated by a Central Oregon colleague and was interviewed by the association. Fellow art teacher Nancy Watterson Scharf wrote a letter of recommendation.
Baynes’ reputation in Sisters is already well established. Theresa Slavkovsky, director of FAN said, “There are kids who stay in school for art. They love art and they love Mike.”
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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