Notre Dame Belmont High School students have art in the bag

In one wheeled suitcase, an airplane can be seen taking flight as a horseshoe and a dragonfly rest inside. Another shows a large tree growing from a trunk lid, welcoming the viewer to imagine themselves swaying on a swing dangling from a branch.

Martha Anne Kuntz, chair of the school’s Visual and Performing Arts Department, found one particularly moving as it depicted a row of homes and a small tea set. It was meant to represent the happy memories one student had of traveling between her parents’ homes and growing up with her step-siblings.

The idea for The Luggage Project came to Kuntz as students were isolating at the peak of the pandemic. Each student was provided with a home art box stocked with supplies and learned to manipulate the material virtually, with Kuntz teaching from her garage and students learning from home.

“It was so amazing to me because the focus was so strongly connected to these things that students suddenly realized were so important to them,” Kuntz said. “It took on new meaning because everyone was in isolation.”

Though remote learning made teaching the medium more difficult, Kuntz said she was determined to lead students in how to work with clay. Students would develop and sculpt their projects from home and, when they returned to school, the lessons on glazing began.

The second step was one of the more difficult in the process given that the color going on is far lighter than what will be revealed after baking the clay at 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, Kuntz said.

“Come hell or high water, we were going to do clay,” Kuntz said.

Rather than teaching students to make mugs or small vases, Kuntz often opts to lead her students through less traditional projects. But had COVID-19 not disrupted life nearly three years ago, Kuntz said she’s not sure she would have come up with The Luggage Project, noting “something just clicked in my head.”

The idea to pursue displaying the pieces came later as she walked through the newly opened Harvey Milk Terminal with her husband who works at the airport and saw art from other students exhibited. Kuntz contacted the airport’s art curator, Nicole Mullen, and from there they began the process of envisioning the display.

SFO student art program

SFO’s student art program is intended to allow students to showcase their work in a gallery setting to the airport’s international audience and build up student confidence, Mullen said, noting working with Notre Dame Belmont High School, Kuntz and her students was a wonderful experience.

“She really has a vision for the types of projects the students work on at the school and was so enthusiastic about showcasing the students’ artwork,” Mullen said. “It was also compelling to see what students would choose to take with them in their luggage if they could only take a few things.”

Display selections

A total of eight out of 55 students had their pieces selected for display. Photographs taken by Kuntz show the pieces either in their final forms with some sitting side by side with images of the piece before being glazed and fired.

One such piece by Samantha Cook shows a bench and a stuffed toy puppy sitting in a trunk, all gray before the finishing steps help reveal a colorful display of green, red and purple tiles lining the top of the vessel. On the edge of the lid sits a blue puppy with white paws and below is a removable red-stained bench and dog water bowl.

Cook was nearly brought to tears when she saw her piece on display. She learned her work had been selected while on a family trip in Hawaii, a lucky coincidence, Cook said. After landing in SFO on a late July night, she and her family raced to see the display in person before the airport closed.

“When I saw the wall and then zeroed in on my art — my art — on the wall it was really overwhelming,” Cook said. “Honestly, it is so surreal to see your own art in a place where other people can see it. I get that most people will just see it on their way to the bathroom but every once in a while a person is going to be waiting for their travel buddy and look at that wall and see what I made, something that I cared for. Even if no one really sees everything that went into it, they still see it and that’s just amazing.”

The exhibit ran from July through October, capping off a year and a half of work by Kuntz and her students. Now, she’s set her hopes on continuing the relationship with SFO and has already begun mulling over future exhibit ideas.