- December 4, 2025
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When Alexander Muenchow, a third grader at Gene Witt Elementary School, first saw iPads in an art classroom for the first time in April, he was shocked.
He immediately wondered how old he had to be to get his hands on one.
After returning from summer vacation, he found out that he is old enough.
Now he is doing various projects with the technology, including pieces inspired by the sea and one with a forest scene. His next project will be to create digital artwork of his family.
“I like using the iPad because it’s fun to draw and you can use special tools,” Muenchow said. “For instance, there’s a glitter pad you can use to put glitter over your artwork. There’s stickers you can do. It makes art more fun.”
Lakewood Ranch-based builder Neal Communities has sponsored the “My Favorite Home” art contest on an annual basis. Each year, Neal Communities picks a different school — usually in Manatee County or Sarasota County — to host the contest. The top three finishers had their art used for Neal Communities' holiday cards.
Neal Communities' provides the funding each year, and it was supposed to amount to $5,000 last school year when Gene Witt was selected, to supply and implement the projects for the contest.
Kimberly Hoy, the visual arts teacher at Gene Witt Elementary School, has worked at the school for 25 years and has been working toward having an art lab for the students for the past eight years. Through fundraising, millage money and $3,500 worth of support from The Patterson Foundation, she was close to her goal.
Director of Marketing Christine McKelvey said Neal Communities had been inspired by the students' creative talents and therefore wanted to provide additional funds to make the lab happen.
“I think she (Hoy) said they were about $2,500 from their goal to actually make the digital art lab a reality,” McKelvey said. “We kind of looked at each other like, ‘Why don't we just push them across the finish line?’”
So Neal Communities provided an additional $2,500.
Hoy estimated that $20,000 was spent toward the lab. That includes 25 iPads with protective cases, Apple pens, a charging station, licensing fees and art-focused apps.
The digital art lab allows for students to learn how to use apps including “Drawing Pad,” “Draw and Tell,” “Musical Me!” and “Amaziograph,” which act as stepping stones toward more difficult Adobe software. Hoy said that in the art world, it is expected that students have an understanding of digital art platforms such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
Through the apps, Hoy said they not only do traditional and digital art, but they integrate reading, math and science as well. Younger students have used stickers to tell a story digitally.
McKelvey said Neal Communities loved seeing the digital art lab come to fruition.
“The way technology is moving, anything to give kids a leg up,” McKelvey said. “Pencils and paper are nice, but everything's going to be done on a computer.”
“It's pretty much the wave of the future,” Hoy said. “The students love it. They all are always asking, ‘When are we doing digital art?"
The third grade students are working on an ocean conservation unit where they research and draw an endangered sea creature.
Kali Neal, a third grader at Gene Witt, said she likes the level of creativity that is unlocked when using the iPads. She has drawn a sunset, a dolphin and a dog using the iPads. She said she likes to watch the how-to videos because they are slow and she can easily follow along at her own pace. She wants to be a painter in the future.
Third grader Arden Misiewicz said he likes using both reference pictures and how-to videos to create art. He said he wants to draw his favorite dinosaur, the Spinosaurus.
“It's not trying to draw from memory, it's looking at something,” Misiewicz said. “It's like you are a real artist.”
“I think it's really improved a lot of their art,” Hoy said. “Some of them that I hadn't seen as much creativity from in pencil, I've seen them blossom.”
Hoy said that since creating artwork on the iPads, she has implemented “gallery walks” where the students walk around the room and check out their classmates’ projects.
“The kids were giving such good feedback to (other students) who don't always get the kudos or don't always have all the friends,” Hoy said. “They were saying, ‘You're amazing.’”
“I am so thankful for the generosity of our community and Neal Communities in bringing this opportunity to our kids,” Hoy said. “They are going to be ready to take that leap into the future of art creation and hopefully we will inspire many new ‘imagineers" of the future.’”
