Elementary school staff is providing a program to introduce students to the arts. Meet the Masters is a series of lessons that teaches students about the cultural and historical significance of artists and their work.
Cottonwood School is introducing second through fifth grade students to the new program. Students focus on one artist for two weeks. The first week, Dawn Collins, a teacher at Cottonwood teaches students about the artist’s biography, the cultural atmosphere at that time, famous artwork, and vocabulary describing their work.
The second week, students are given the opportunity to make a version of one of the artist’s pieces of work. For example, Cottonwood students were learning about Frederic Remington. Remington is most known for his depiction of the Old American West. Mrs. Collins walked students step-by-step through an art project that depicted the Old West. During the art classes, ASB students from the middle school walk around and help students with their project.
Hamilton School has been utilizing the Meet the Master’s program for five years. Carol Robilotta, Principal, invites students to an assembly to learn about a new artist. Students are able to learn about the artist’s influences, life goals, and descriptive vocabulary to describe the artist’s work. Throughout the presentation, Robilotta asks students how certain paintings or sculptures make student’s feel and what the artists was trying to represent through their works of art. After the presentation, students are asked questions about what they learned about the artist and their artwork. Students are released to their classrooms where they work on an art project that represents the artist’s genre of artwork.
Principal Robilotta said she is always surprised by the amount of information students are able to retain about each artist. During the last Meet the Masters assembly she asked students about Fredrick Remington, an artist student’s learned about when they were in Kindergarten, and was shocked when they were able to answer the question.
Educators are continually working to keep all students engaged. With this program staff is able to connect to more of its students by providing another avenue of creativity. Both Cottonwood and Hamilton Schools are excited by the opportunities this program is giving its students.