On a brisk Sunday morning, North and South High School Art Departments hosted its first collaborative community art project.
The planning began in the Spring of 2025 with October 12, 2025, as the official event date. High school art students designed and carved the majority of the 3/4 inch wood panels. The carving process took over 100+ hours between both schools. For most students, they had experience with the reduction relief cut method and were familiar with the printmaking process. It is essential to provide students with varied art experiences that continue to shape their appreciation, understanding, and engagement for the creative process and collaboration.
We were excited to bring this to the high school level so that our community can experience the art of printmaking using a 3-foot roller. In addition, encouraging attendees to try making their own linoleum and lego print.
A BIG thank you to our art teachers and the National Art Honor Society members.
The event would not be possible without the support of North administration, Michael Lubach, Ben Gasper, Ampersand Supply Co, Sargento, and The Thai Express Food Truck.
This event was supported by a grant from the Sheboygan Area School Distict and Utely Education Foundation.
Proceeds from the sale of the prints go towards both art programs.
Photo: Pat Ryan
In Action
Photos by Pat Ryan
In the Press
Sheboygan Sun | Sheboygan North and South students collaborate on steamroller printmaking event.
Sheboygan, WI – North and South High School Art Departments are excited to announce a community art event called “Steamroller Printmaking Event.” The event will consist of a 3-foot roller, creating large-scale prints that were carved out of wood. All wood carvings were hand-carved by North & South art students. During the event, there will be a make & take area where people can make their own prints and buy lunch from the Thai Express food truck.
This event is popular across our state, hosted by art institutions. On October 12th, we will bring this to the high school level. It is going to be a great opportunity to offer this to our students, staff, families, and the general public to experience and enjoy.
The Steamroller Printmaking Event is open to the public. FREE.
This event is supported by a grant from the Utely Education Foundation and Sheboygan Area School District.
If you go:
Steamroller Printmaking Event
North High West Parking Lot, 12th and School Avenue, Sheboygan 53083
Sunday, October 12th, 10 am – 2 pm.
All large-scale prints will be available for purchase by donation. Proceeds go toward both art departments.
professionals. This platform provides us the opportunity to talk about various topics relating to college and career readiness and to share it with our students.
In this episode, artist Karly Kainz (class of 2015) talks about how her interest in art has led her to pursue a MFA degree, using art as a vehicle for personal reflection and self-discovery, and realizing that happiness is important in pursuing a career.
This episode is supported by a grant from the Kohler Foundation, Inc.
Beginning a new journey at New Mexico State University, Karly’s practice is currently in state of flux, entangled in a developmental and experimental phase as she begins a new body of work. After creating work for years centered around the climate crisis, her attention has been pulled in many different directions in response to the state of this past year. Looking at the global isolation indoors, she was forced to evaluate her space and the objects held within it. Her work is a conversation of the meaning held within objects and the ways in which material can alter that reality. Through the use of abundant materials, her work portrays a nonsensical reality of objects through altered perspective, scale, pattern and form. These works hope to further understand the psychology of how we interact with objects and the sentiment we hold them to.
Karly Jean Kainz is an interdisciplinary artist from Wisconsin who focuses on the materiality of object making. She recently received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art with an emphasis in Print & Narrative Forms from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2019. Since 2016, she has exhibited in several Milwaukee based group shows. Additionally, her work is included in multiple collections at UWM and in the Milwaukee area. Her work within the university has led to outside positions like working as a printmaker and graphic designer at the Theaster Gates Studio in Chicago, IL preparing for shows like the world-wide recognized Chicago Architectural Biennial in 2019 and designing for community spaces. Currently residing in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Kainz in studying to receive her Masters in Fine Art at New Mexico State University.
This video is edited by Artdose Magazine. In collaboration with the Sheboygan North High School Art Department.
We end the 2018-2019 school year with two amazing programs, The National Art Honor Society (NAHS) and the Artist-in-residency Program (AiR).
The Sheboygan North High Art Department officially became a National Art Honor Society (NAHS) chapter. This is the first chapter of its kind in our North High history dedicated to the visual arts.
Visual arts education is essential to 21st-century learning. As a new NAHS chapter we utilized the National Art Education Association (NAEA) to stay ahead of developments in the field of arts education by being introducing a broad perspective of research, issues, and policy trends that are key in art education. As a NAHS chapter we connected to thousands of chapters from around the globe who are passionate about the integral role of the visual arts in ensuring all students to receive a high-quality, effective, and well-rounded education.
We believe that the National Art Honor Society will contribute to reaching our building goals. In addition, introducing students to a diverse art offering beyond the walls of North High will expand their minds, to participate in new art experiences, and to provide leadership opportunities, which will contribute to their personal and academic growth. Student success is very important to us and our professional goal is to assist them in their journeys.
The NAHS Chapter created three committees focused on fundraising, community outreach, and beautifying our school environment through art.
We created partnerships with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and the MEAD Library.
Below is a collection of images that our students participated in as well as a video celebrating the completion of our “Be the Next Generation” Mural, an exit interview and artist talk with Craig Grabhorn, and poetry readings.
Gallery
Mural in progress
National Art Honor Society’s (NAHS) mural, “Be the Next Generation”, is a gift to North High School and its students. As you can see, it pictures the words, “be the next generation” underlying a sprouting seedling. Planning the mural, we wanted the sprout to symbolize everyone who feels lost or isolated while also standing for growth. Nature is an empowering force. No matter where, it finds a way. Even from the concrete, nature erects itself in masses of green foliage. A sproutling is small, inferior, and feeble. We could easily uproot it with our bare hands, but sproutlings grow. They persevere between the concrete and with time they rise to the sky and become towering trees. We are the trees, we can grow and become greater things. We have always persisted; from the very beginning when we were wild and instinctual, to now where we face the stresses of everyday life. We grow and adapt. We become today and the rising suns of tomorrow.
The word “generation” is a major point of the mural. Each letter was painted by a different member of NAHS with what they perceived as “the next generation” or simply their thoughts on the phrase and their inspirations. By incorporating the “art” into the word “generation” we are literally proclaiming that what we, all of us, aspire for in the future will become the next generation.
We want to encourage and inspire the generations of now to take a stand for both others and themselves, regardless of their skin color, their background, their gender, their sexual orientation, and etc. You don’t have to conform to the society of yesterday. Be who you want to be and who you need to be for the good of the world. – Sara Vang, grade 10
Artist-in-residency with Craig Grabhorn (Exit Interview)
Hear what he has to say about his experience at North High as a visiting artist.
Video: End of the Year Celebration at Sheboygan North High School
In this video we share with you the unveiling of “Be the Next Generation”, artist talk with Craig, and poetry readings by students & advisor (in response to Craig’s art).
Craig Grabhorn lives and works in Sheboygan, WI. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin- Stout, he is currently employed as Community Arts Residency Coordinator with The John Michael Kohler Arts Center. He was born and raised in rural Minnesota and has made a career as a practiced designer, printmaker, painter, curator and arts organizer.
His work is inspired by a meditative exploration or observation of place and the opportunities within our natural surroundings. Through intensive listening he translates environment into material works, including prints, paintings and sculptural works. Objects he creates are often tools or vehicles of exploration, used to help capture and interpret the emotions and opportunities he finds.
Since moving to Sheboygan, Craig has been communing with Lake Michigan and the expansive horizon in a photography project titled 50over50atmos. This meditation was inspired after a two year retreat in the hills of the Driftless region to study and create a print series exploring the an- cient landscape. The 50over50atmos project documents the ever changing colors, surfaces and atmosphere of Lake Michigan as a daily capture from the same location on the shore. The prac- tice of watching with an intimacy, fuels a passion to find connection to local environment.
Craig will be with us for our Spring 2019 semester. We look forward to working with him.
nhsartdept.com 