Clerk’s office home to new N.E.S.T. of high school art

The Osceola County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller’s Office showed off a new line of artwork on the second floor of the Osceola County Courthouse.

Middle and high-school artists from Horizon and Discovery Middle and Liberty and Poinciana High schools will have their work on display at a place visited by some 100,000 people annually.

People visiting to get a passport or marriage license, or to pay fines or a ticket will again be witness to a de facto art museum.

Last year, Clerk and Comptroller Kelvin Soto debuted the N.E.S.T. Gallery, which stands for Neighborhood Exhibit for Student Talent, with the work of 18 Tohopekaliga High School art students. The reviews were so positive that another group of artists, this time from the Poinciana area, now have their work on display in 2024. A gala event at the Courthouse was held Monday to present the work.

As he perused the works, done in pencil, paints and digital formats, Osceola County School District Superintendent Mark Shanoff made sure to tell some of the high school artists in attendance to keep their passion intact as they move on from high school to college and their adult lives.

“This is an opportunity to recognize the unique talents of our students,” he said. “What they learn in these elective classes make our school experiences so unique. It’s important to celebrate their creativity and passion.

Soto, a School Board member himself from 2012-20, called housing the works, “A great honor for our staff to promote and recognize students.

“The students featured on these walls could be the next Picasso or Rembrandt, and we can say, ‘We knew them when,’” he said.

The art will brighten the hallways of what can be a sterile government space and spark creativity and conversation among customers. Poinciana High senior Yarelis Torres and Liberty High’s Taynna Legrand said that, if you’d ask them as freshman, they’d never believe they’d get their work shown in such a public place in just a couple short years.

“It feels really special to be a part of this,” said Legrand, who also noted she’s planning on attending nursing school after graduating from Liberty, but plans to continue creating art.

Torres, who has art school in her plans after PHS, says she uses art to express herself, as she said Monday, “I’m not good with words.”

“I’d rather draw. I draw my emotions,” she said. “I let people try to guess what I’m trying to express, then when I explain it, that’s how they get to know me well, I’m expressing my emotions through drawing.”

Hearing those comments, Soto said he wants to continue the N.E.S.T. program at the Courthouse for as long as he is in office—he’s up for re-election in 2024.

“I want to continue to expand this, to sculptures,” he said. “Then in October, we can to look the next to group of artists.”