Art has brought in a whole new perspective on learning for one local school.
Being an inner city school in Prince George, Ron Brent elementary has always tried to find new strategies to help students learn.
Many students are members of families that live in poverty and are dealing with other issues.
The school staff offers students coping skills to self-regulate emotions and develop stamina and self confidence so they can be successful learners despite life's circumstances.
Staff at Ron Brent believed adding a strong artistic component into the school curriculum would be therapeutic. Grant applications went out and were successful in bringing Artists in the Classroom to the school with the theme of resiliency.
Along with staff, there is an art gallery community coordinator, art therapist consultant and school counsellor. Art lessons were created to develop social emotional learning and build a sense of community throughout the school.
In each classroom, there are posters that encourage students to do a self-check of their emotions. Within one room, there are solutions offered like the two exercise bikes sitting at the back of a class filled with senior students that provide a physical outlet for students that just need a short break, either because they're tired or bored, frustrated or ready to lose control.
As a reflection of the success seen during the Artists in the Classroom program, Ron Brent is hosting an art show themed Respect Environment Awareness & Diversity (READ) with Art and the Seven Teachings April 6 and 7 that focuses on respecting the environment, responsibility, cooperation and the Seven Sacred Teachings, including honesty, wisdom, humility, truth, love, respect and courage.
Within the Artists in the Classroom projects, some students did a painting and a clay project, exploring their talents in two different mediums.
"This is an aqua bear," said Allan, a Grade 5 student, describing his clay art. "It's a microscopic organism (tardigrade) and its natural food source is protozoa and they practically can't die. They have survived the heat of the sun, subzero temperatures, the vacuum of space and chemical weapons and the only thing that can kill them is age."
Allan's interest was piqued when he watched a program called Animal Superpowers: Extreme Survivors and aqua bears were on top of the list.
"This is the animal I wanted to do because it can't die," said Allan.
Sedin did an owl painting like the rest of the Grade 5 class.
"I did my best on this," said Sedin about his watercolour and black marker picture depicting a family of owls perched on a tree, with a moon, clouds and a house included in the image.
"I did the design and I used my creative mind to do it," said Sedin.
As the students continued to explain their projects, Jordan, who is in Grade 6, was representing his whole class and talked about their tree paintings and clay tiles depicting the animals representing the seven teachings and sculptured dishes.
"It's raining tacos out of the sky, it's raining tacos out of the sky, open your mouth and close your eye, it's raining tacos," sing some of the students in the group while others laugh at the antics of their schoolmates and enjoy the spontaneous entertainment.
Then the attention is redirected to Jordan as he gestures to an art piece done by a classmate.
"I thought this was very cool the way the colours were all mixed in together, I found this technique very common and the art was very experimental with all the different colours of paints," Jordan said, describing a watercolour painting of a stylized tree.
Jace, Grade 5, was happy to explain both his clay art and his water colour.
"I made a black bear because that's the very first bear I ever saw in my life," Jace said. "Here's my portrait. You know how some owls try to look around you and they don't have necks so their heads kinda sway and they stay up a bit? And then I made a messed-up one like really tall, with one eye purple and one eye just regular."
The art exhibit takes place Thursday, April 6 at 1 p.m. for the opening and gallery walk and Friday, April 7 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Artists in the Classrooms mentors included Anne Saar, pottery; Carla Joseph, clay/pottery; Catherine Baylis, paint; Christina Watts, multimedia; Frances Gobbi, paint and photography; Joanne Mikkelsen, clay/pottery; Leanna Carlson, clay/pottery, Peter George, First Nations artist; and Wendy Young, glass and paint.
