By Erin Fuhr | Echo
Taylor art students have served the community for many years by offering art classes for children.
Art education majors and studio artists offer summer art camps as well as private and group lessons to children ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade.
Kathy Herrmann, art department co-chair, launched the program because of the need she saw in the community.
"Basically I want people feeling comfortable when they come in the art department, because it can be kind of an intimidating thing for the public . . ." Herrmann said.
Herrmann launched the children's art program by starting the summer art camp in 2007. After six years, the program has become widely popular in the community. This past year, 98 kids from the surrounding area attended.
Another successful program is the after-school art program, which for many years has been part of the Elementary Methods class at Taylor. Students from this class get experience with teaching elementary art by giving after-school art lessons.
The program runs for four Fridays, Oct. 18 through Nov. 15. The Monday after the last class, the department will put on an art show. "We put the art up all over the place, and all the families come from the program, and we have refreshments-it's like an art opening," Herrmann said.
While the children in the program obviously benefit from the lessons, the Taylor students benefit just as much. Herrmann explained the importance of her students getting teaching experience prior to graduation.
"I feel like any practical experience students can get before they go out and actually use their major is a good thing, especially those who are going to be teachers," Herrmann said. "I like for them to have things on their resumes that are going to make them stand above and do as much as they can to be using their teaching while they're here."
As the children's art programs continued to be successful, the art department began giving private and small group lessons to children being taught by elementary art majors. The yearlong lessons have been taught by students for the past three years.
"It's really been fun to see children who have taken these in the past come back and want to do that. We try to keep them as long as we can with the same teacher so they can develop a relationship," Herrmann said.
Herrmann's original goal was to make the community feel welcome on Taylor's campus, and she believes that these classes have been successful in reaching that goal.
"We've even had some of the families who have attended whose children have come, they'll come over maybe for an art exhibit or something," Herrmann said. "I just wanted them to feel welcome here, and that they don't have to feel afraid to come on Taylor's campus and participate on things we have going on in the art department . . . I saw a need for that, and I said, let's just do it."
