Borrego Sun - Since 1949

Originated and orchestrated by artists Joya Granbery Hoyt and her sister Pamela Granbery, "Outside the Box", is a wonderful program being operated at the Borrego Middle School to not just, 'give the kids something to do' while waiting for their parents to pick them up but provide interesting and educational projects the students would not normally be exposed to.

Both Joya and Pamela are accomplished artists who have been coming to Borrego for many years. They are skilled in many disciplines including film production, scenic and lighting design, sound production, dance, photography, ad infinitum.

In addition to all they produce as artists, they are also unstoppable volunteers who actively seek out projects, like "Outside the Box". After walking across the middle school campus and seeing a bunch of kids sitting on lunch tables with nothing to do, no homework, no ASES programs, nothing, they started a multifaceted program to involve kids in all types of art from clothing design and manufacture, cooking, video filming and production to their art of photo collage.

The idea is to create projects designed to explore areas like sewing, animal care, painting and much more by inviting experts in various fields to lecture and mentor the students through their assignments.

Last year one of the projects was to create films, written and performed by the students and shot with phone cameras. Three of the finished products were exhibited, and well received, at the 2015 Borrego Film Festival. At the Art Walk showing in Feb. a quilt, made by students, of photo collages printed on fabric was put on display. How do they come up with this stuff?

This year, among other projects, the students have created some wonderful three dimensional geometric art pieces to be shown at The Gallery in the Borrego Mall starting at last weeks Art Walk and continuing until spring break. It is a spectacular exhibit that should be seen by all.