Our Values
Being a part of the Sketch Basin family means that we constantly work to absorb and embody our core values in new ways. We are, individually and collectively, works in progress. And we believe the process is often more important than the product.
Our Mission
We elevate talented young artists towards meaningful creative careers by providing them with sophisticated, rigorous, and transformative studio art classes and professional opportunities.
Our Artists
Our Artists are…
Highly talented teens who aspire toward creative careers, yet lack the knowledge of possible opportunities or pathways to pursue them. These students attend non-selective charter high schools in New Orleans, which offer very basic or no studio visual art instruction.
Our Program
We’ll identify students first semester of their Freshmen year. During second semester, we will work with selected students at their schools one day a week to lay down a visual foundation on which they can build for the rest of high school.
10th
Sophomore Year
Students will complete a dual enrollment Drawing I course where they simultaneously earn college and high school credit. Students will curate and exhibit their work each semester and receive feedback from college professors and professional artists.
11th
Junior Year
Students will complete a dual enrollment 2D Design course where they simultaneously earn college and high school credit. Students will curate and exhibit their work each semester and receive feedback from college professors and local professional artists.
12th
Senior year
Sketch Basin seniors will receive support with college application and enrollment, as well as scholarship research. During this year, students will also be connected with an internship or apprenticeship in their specific creative field of interest.
Our Team
Amelia Broussard and Catherine Walker have taught Visual Art together in a New Orleans charter high school for 4 years. When they began, there was only one Art class offering for students. Through their tenure, 7 additional classes were added along 2 separate, sequenced art pathways.
Amelia Broussard, Co-Founder and Director
Amelia has taught high school Art for 4 years in New Orleans. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from Loyola University in New Orleans and is a collective member of Antenna Gallery. As an artist, Amelia works mostly in collage and mixed media. She has exhibited regularly for the past 8 years in New Orleans and has curated exhibitions at Antenna Gallery.
Catherine Walker, Co-founder and director
Catherine has taught high school Art for 9 years in Washington DC, Chicago and New Orleans. She holds a BS in Interior Design and a MA in Teaching Art from New York University. Catherine is an abstract painter, working mostly in acrylics. She has exhibited in New York, Washington DC and New Orleans.
Our Partners
School Partners
We are privileged to support and serve the students, faculty and leaders at the following schools…
GW Carver Collegiate High School
community partners
The New Orleans Career Center
“The New Orleans Career Center is a half day college and career training provider, giving Orleans Parish high school students hands-on technical training to master the skills and gain experience for in-demand jobs, ensuring a better life for themselves and their families, and further strengthening the economic fabric of the New Orleans region.”
Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans
“The CAC is a multidisciplinary arts center that is dedicated to the presentation, production, and promotion of the art of our time.
The CAC is a cultural leader. As such, it organizes, presents, and tours curated exhibitions, performances and programs by local, regional, national, and international artists. It demonstrates proactive local and regional leadership by educating children and adults, cultivating and growing audiences, and initiating and encouraging collaboration among diverse artists, institutions, communities, and supporters.”
Get Involved
One of the most important ways Sketch Basin will achieve the outcomes of our mission is through dynamic and varied partnerships. Check out the options below to see how you can help empower young artists in the New Orleans community to reach their full potential.
Be a financial partner
We could not meet our students’ creative needs without financial partner support. We welcome and are grateful for any size gift at any time of the year!
Become a School partner
Press this button if you are a school leader, counselor or teacher and know you have students who could benefit from our programming!
lead an artist workshop
Sketch Basin hosts monthly creative fundraising workshops for our community, led by local professional artists. Press this button if you are an artist and would like to lead one of these workshops. If you’d like to learn a new creative skill and participate in one of our workshops, check out our events page for more information.
Be a Professional or academic mentor
Press this button if you are a creative professional and want to invest your time in New Orleans’ future artists. You could:
Be a guest lecturer
Sit on a guest artist/design jury or critique panel
Provide weekly, biweekly or monthly feedback
1 on 1 student to professional mentor
Host Sketch Basin artists
Our young artists have limited knowledge of what kinds of creative careers exist. A major goal of ours is to expose our students often to as many creative spaces as possible. Press this button if you’d like to invite Sketch Basin students into your professional creative space. You could:
Host a field trip
Host an end of year student art exhibition
Host a Sketch Basin intern
