LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. (August 25, 2025) – When 670 students at Witt Elementary participated in last year’s “My Favorite Home” art contest sponsored by Neal Communities, little did they know that their inspired artwork would lead to a new iPad Digital Art Lab to help fuel their creativity.
For its participation, Neal Communities donated $5,000 to the school including $1,500 for supplies to execute My Favorite Home. The remaining donation was used to create the Digital Art iPad Lab at Gene Witt Elementary. Following the contest, Neal Communities learned that the Digital Art Lab fundraising was $2,500 from its goal and chose to donate that additional amount to help Hoy reach her goal.
The lab officially opened just before school let out last Spring where students spent several weeks learning how to use several Digital Art apps, according to Kimberly Roberson-Hoy, M.Ed., visual arts teacher at Witt Elementary.
“They quickly mastered the processes. Over the summer our summer camp visited Zoo Tampa and they then created their own Zoo “Architect” plans on the iPads, along with lots of other fun,” she says. “The first week of school this year I heard ‘When are we doing digital art?’ This year, we are already using our iPads to learn about Ocean Conservation and researching endangered sea animals to inspire our next art project.”
The “My Favorite Home” annual art contest sponsored by Neal Communities, Southwest Florida’s premier private homebuilder gives students at a selected elementary school in grades K-5 an opportunity to design their vision of an ideal home, with winners in each grade level selected at an event with the top three home designs featured on the Neal Communities, Neal Signature Homes and SimplyDwell Homes holiday cards.
“Digital Art is really the way of the future for many young artists,” Hoy adds. “I am so thankful for the generosity of our community and Neal Communities in bringing this opportunity to our kids. 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.”
