What We Do
Our founding members include art teachers, art professionals, and parents who believe art is an integral part of a child’s development. We understand that the fine arts provide students with opportunities to explore their creativity and self-expression, as well as use critical thinking skills and self-motivation to excel in all areas of their learning.
projectART Wimberley is committed to supporting Fine Arts education in the area. Our goals are to support Wimberley ISD art programs, expand our support to KAPS and other Wimberley organizations, continue to display youth art in the Wimberley community and expand projectMENTOR – our student/professional artist apprenticeship program.
projectART nurtures and inspires young artists, supports diverse learning and innovative thinking, and provides real-world experiences that give area students the tools to pursue their creative ambitions and meaningfully contribute to their future communities.
projectART is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to supporting art education and providing creative opportunities for area students. EIN: 84-3295699
Board President
Jamie Pettit is a mixed-media artist and art teacher who taught elementary art for 20 years in Austin I.S.D. Jamie also managed, designed, and taught a summer art program in Austin for 11 years. After graduating from the University of Houston in 1997 with a BFA in Studio Art, Jamie attended UT Austin and obtained her art teacher’s certification in 1998. Jamie has exhibited her personal artwork in Houston and Austin, most recently being chosen for The People’s Gallery 2020 show at Austin City Hall. She believes art is essential and is excited about projectART’s youth art mission and advocating for art education in the Wimberley area.
Board Vice President
Jennifer Ober graduated from UT Austin with a BFA in Studio Art. She added her TX teaching certification in 2001 and taught K-6 art in Austin ISD for 10 years, earning Teacher of the Year in 2007. Jennifer was part of the Austin ISD art curriculum writing team and was instrumental in the origins of the Cherrywood Art Fair and Little Artist Big Artist program, both of which benefited the art program at Maplewood Elementary. After moving to Wimberley Jennifer opened up her private studio, Agua Fresca Studios, to summer camps and after school art classes. She also taught elementary through high school art at Hill Country Academy in Dripping Springs for three years. These days Jennifer spends much of her time with her two young daughters, teaching creative, small art classes in her studio and as a guest teacher in her daughters’ classrooms. She thoroughly enjoys supporting and advocating for the art programs in Wimberley schools as a founding member of projectART Wimberley, and expanding the reach of youth art opportunities through innovative programming such as projectMENTOR and projectARTSPACE.
Board Secretary
Heather Carter is a wood sculptor, parent, and former school board trustee of a public charter school, Katherine Anne Porter School. She has a BFA from Southwestern University and has been invited to speak to undergraduate students about her work and success as a public artist. Her commissions include work for an Austin Public Library, several Texas restaurants, and office lobby spaces. She has taught project-based learning activities with local junior high and high school students and has served as a visiting artist/teacher at the Junior High, High school, and college levels. Heather enjoys her continuing work designing a curriculum for students that includes Maker Spaces and Entrepreneurship and hopes that ProjectART can be a catalyst for this new way of bringing ART into every subject.