About Us

The Walton High School Art program is involved in many competitions and actively participates in community service opportunities. Students' work has been featured on the College Board website as an example of exemplary work. Students won first place in Wyland's national mural contest.  A Walton student  won first place in the Georgia Youth Art Month contest and had her work featured in GAEA's Collage Magazine. Her work was also made into a flag that was displayed at the NAEA Convention in 2014. Walton students' work was featured in the 2013 NAHS newspapers. Students' work has been featured in almost every GAEA event, and students participate annually in the All State Art Symposium, Congressional Art Competitions, Metro Atlanta High School Exhibit, at the High Museum of Art and the Capitol Art Exhibition.  Students have also been involved with YAM and the State School Board Youth Art Gallery. In the community, students go and paint with the elderly and work with the non-profit Foundation for Hospital Art to beautify hospitals throughout the world. They also work with feeder schools and do arts and crafts with the children at these schools. Along with volunteering face painting at a special needs carnival, students also do face painting at footballs games and elementary school festivals. 

Kathleen Petka
Kathleen Petka enjoys every aspect of art, spending time with family and friends, sports, traveling, cooking, baking, eating and running. She graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Art Education from the University of Georgia and  got her Masters of Education in Art Education and an Educational Specialist in Instructional Technology from the University of West Georgia. She teaches all levels of art on extended day at a school with just over 2,700 students. She is the only Visual Arts teacher at the school, meaning she alone teaches around 190 students every day. Along with this, she is a junior varsity volleyball coach and the assistant gymnastics coach. She was the 2014-15 High School Visual Art Specialist for Cobb County School District and co-organized the Art of the Art Teacher Show for Cobb's teachers.  She also judges the Governor's Honors Program at regional and state level. She collaborates regularly with other teachers to discuss the state of programs and new ideas and was on the Student Learning Objective Team and helped to create STEAM lessons for the county.
Mrs. Petka has been a member of the NAEA since 2003 and has won the Outstanding National Art Honor Society Sponsor Award in 2014 and was presented with this award at the NAEA Conference in San Diego. She participated in the National Art Education Association Convention in New York in 2012 as well.  She was featured in the spring 2014 issue of NAHS News and was an AP Reader in 2012 and 2013, displaying her work in the AP Studio Art  Reader's Exhibition in Salt Lake City.  She attended the summer institute at Walton in 2011, 2013 and 2014 and was the recipient of a scholarship for the Savannah College of Art and Design Educators Essentials workshop.  She placed at a competition at Brenau University, and the University of Georgia purchased her drawings for their permanent gallery. Mrs. Petka is WSB Channel 2's Community Champion award winner for May 2015.