New this year, students at Pine Glen Public School were given an opportunity to choose art as their winter elective thanks to the Artists in the School Program.
The program is a partnership between the Town of Huntsville, the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and the Huntsville Art Society (HAS). That partnership gives elementary students an opportunity to participate in drama, creative arts, and visual arts projects. It enhances the arts programs in elementary schools at very little cost to both the students and schools, explained HAS member Pam Carnochan.
She said funds were raised for the initiative over the past few years but due to COVID the program could not proceed. Finally, that’s changed.
“The teachers have been so tapped with COVID and creative expression gets rid of a lot of stress and gets rid of a lot of angst that built up in people, so I think it’s very important to use a creative outlet for students especially coming through the pandemic,” she said, adding that art is often dismissed as an extra but “we see it as something much greater than an extra.”
Cornochan pointed at the students working on a project guided by artist Pam MacKenzie at Partners Hall.
She said students were not only learning colour theory but also learning to tap into their own intuitive creative process. “That is what drives engineering. That is what drives the creative process of all kinds of inventions that come to us through science… so it’s not an extra,” she emphasized.
The initiative began on February 2 and will run for six sessions over a three-week period.
“It’s very exciting,” said Amanda Asmussen, classroom teacher at Pine Glen Public School “It’s an excellent opportunity for these kids to engage with some of the amazing artists that we have right here in this community. It gets us learning about different techniques that maybe we can’t necessarily do in the regular classroom, and just engaging in an art activity. At Pine Glen we try and offer different opportunities. We’ve got other students who are doing different winter outdoor activities today and this just offers another niche for kids with artistic interests,” said Asmussen.
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This program sounds wonderful and fulfills a great need for students to be involved in learning creative expression in the visual arts and theatre. Also, to experience this outside of the classroom environment with talented artists and professional actors will be a very memorable experience for all involved. Thank you to the members of Huntsville Festival of the Arts and the Huntsville Art Society for your volunteer contributions to offer this program.