Fourth grader Sara Brown at Flynn Park Elementary gently dipped her paint brush in white paint and then into a pool of purple.
“I like to mix colors,” said Brown, 9, whose elementary is in the University City School District. “It makes me feel happy.”
Leaning over the enthusiastic young painter was Saaba Buddenhagen Lutzeler, a guest artist as part of the district’s Returning Artist Program in February.
Lutzeler’s long dark hair cascaded down Brown’s side as she explained how to use the different shades of purple in her painting. Lutzeler knew she wanted to be an artist even before she was sitting in a U. City fourth-grade classroom just like Brown.
She said she owes everything to the University City School District, and that’s why she was honored to be part of the Returning Artist program.
“It’s a bridge between kids from the past and present kids,” she said. “It’s paving a way forward.”
The University City Municipal Commission on Arts and Letters organizes the program, which brings artistically renowned U. City high school graduates back to share with current district students.
Lutzeler was born in St. Louis to an Ethiopian mother and an American father. She said she spent her childhood “gleaning lessons in balance and composition” from her father’s geometric sculptures and lessons “in color, vision, and intuition” from her mother’s entrepreneurial ventures in food product development.
Her studies took her to New York City and Tasmania, Australia. Yet, she received her bachelor’s degree in studio art from Kenyon College in Ohio.
In St. Louis, Lutzeler worked in the U. City school district organizing tutors, while co-creating three community-based public art projects and earning wide recognition for her work.
She spent nearly a decade in the San Francisco Bay area as a portrait artist, and now teaches portrait painting at Craft Alliance and runs collaborative art workshops in private settings, schools, and institutions like St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the Contemporary Art Museum.
“The kids in the district have been uniformly amazing,” she said after visiting nine schools. “They ask insightful questions. They’re curious.”
Jada Glass, fourth grader, was bubbling in her seat when Lutzeler came over to offer some tips. Glass seemed to be relishing the extra attention to art in the classroom. Glass said her father and uncle are good artists.
“I want to be able to paint like they do,” Glass said.
“It’s inspiring the younger generations,” said Melcine Henderson, vice president of the commission. “It shows them to take a different mindset of how life can be after they graduate. And it all starts here.”
Returning artists in past programs have included visual artists, writers, filmmakers, animators, instrumental musicians, composers, actors, singers and dancers.
“It keeps art in the community. Art has been a healing force,” said Adelia Parker-Castro, president of the commission.
“We need art to heal our community. We are planting seeds with the children. As they grow, they will continue to remember the experiences they’ve had in art.”
