When you walk into Dr. Kobylenski’s art room, a sense of relaxation and serenity overcome you.  The creativity blanketing the walls immediately inspires you.  The incredible focus that the students exhibit while working on their art is truly admirable.  This is AP Studio Art.

Naugatuck High School is one of the many schools that offers Advanced Placement, also known as AP, courses.  Classes such as European History, Chemistry, Psychology, and Studio Art are all offered at the AP level.  These courses are intended to be more rigorous because they are taught at a college level.  If students are successful on a final exam, they will earn college credit from that course.

AP Studio Art is taught by Dr. Stephen Kobylenski.  There are currently 11 students enrolled in the class, which Dr. Kobylenski says “is a really good number,” because he is easily able to work individually with each student.  However, he is displeased with the fact that because there are fewer than twelve students, the school has combined AP Studio Art with another class, Illustration, to meet the class size requirement.  He feels that combining a lower level class “waters down pretty much everything because not everyone in the room has the same artistic ability.”

This Advanced Placement course is slightly different than the others in the way that instead of taking an exam at the end of the course, students are required to submit a portfolio of artwork in April.

The portfolio is broken into two main sections, and one smaller section.  The first section is the concentration.  “The portfolio focuses you to form a concentration that is cohesive,” says Dr. Kobylenski.  There are twelve pieces that are required for the concentration portion.  The second section is breadth.  Breadth is made up of “twelve pieces of work that you’ve done previously,” states Dr. Kobylenski.  The third section is quality, which requires the student to choose five pieces of artwork from their creations to physically send to the panel of judges.  All other pieces of artwork are submitted electronically.  

Allison Tortorici, a senior at Naugatuck High School, is one of the students currently enrolled in AP Studio Art.  She states that she has been taking art classes her entire life.  At first, Allison was unsure about taking AP Studio Art; however, Dr. Kobylenski convinced her that she was good enough to take the course.  

Allison also spoke about how she relies on having the class time each day in the art room to work on her concentration.  However, Allison states that “we have nothing to work with.”  She strongly feels that the school does not provide the necessary materials for not only AP Studio Art students, but all art students in general to be successful.

Dr. Kobylenski agrees with Allison and in an interview, stated that “the primary

reason is when people come in as freshmen, they do not have the opportunity, like they should, to take an art class.”  He believes that if a student wants to take an art class, then they should be able to take art for all four years of high school, if they wish.  

When asked what he enjoys most about teaching AP Studio Art, Dr. Kobylenski talked about how he loves seeing “the skills people have,” and “the ideas that come with them.”  He also feels that he has a tremendous amount of freedom in the AP curriculum because everyone has their own individual route that they take with the portfolio, and he enjoys acting as a guide to steer students in the right direction.  He states that he is “of the mind that it comes from the students first” and he “tries to go along with their ideas.”

Although AP Studio Art takes a lot of creativity, work, and dedication, Dr. Kobylenski believes that every student in the course has what it takes, and he is excited to be able to guide them to a successful and beautiful portfolio.