HOMESTEAD — Students at the Propel Homestead Charter School are creating artwork that will spruce up parts of the community, and they’re getting help from a former Pittsburgh Steeler.
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Baron Batch, a former running back who retired in 2013, is now a full-time artist based out of Homestead.
Batch will spend the next several months working with students to create art panels that will hang along a fence outside a newly-built playground on East Tenth Avenue.
The students will work out of Batch’s Studio AM in Homestead, all while receiving expert tutelage from the former football player.
For Batch, he hopes to instill a sense of creativity in the students he comes across.
“My art was able to liberate me,” he said.
Batch appears to be getting through to the students, especially eighth-grader Vernon Washington.
“You can express your feelings through pictures,” Washington said.
Principal Tara Warrington said it’s important for students to learn at an early age the importance of taking pride in their community.
However, it’s also important to find role models within that community, she said.
“It’s important for our kids to see the people in the community that they can relate to and are successful,” she said.
Teaching children about art is rewarding in its own sense for Batch, although the former football player gets a special sort of satisfaction out of his current career.
“I really envisioned myself to be a professional football player and a famous artist,” Batch said. “To be able to sit in front of you and say I’ve done both of those things is the most empowering thing ever.”
The art panels created by the students will be unveiled in June.