By Julia Oller | Echo
Seven Taylor students sprinkled throughout Metcalf classrooms on Tuesday afternoons aren't there to listen but to lecture.
A part of the Elementary Methods class required for all art education majors, Art After School is a five-week art program for local elementary school students. Taylor art education majors instruct the approximately 45 kindergarten through sixth graders in basic art principles and techniques. This Tuesday, a one-day art exhibit featuring the children's work marks the final day of class.
Kathy Herrmann, assistant professor of art education, started the program over 10 years ago to give sophomore and junior art education students field experience before they immersed themselves in student teaching. She takes a hands-off approach to the course, letting students choose themes for their grade levels and develop lesson plans.
"I walk around and monitor behaviors and things like that but the teachers are left on their own to decide the things they want to teach," Herrmann said.
In junior Amanda Felver's fifth and sixth grade classroom, the autumn theme inspired oil pastel pumpkins and watercolor leaves. Other grades focused on the ocean, story books and seasons.
Besides tying individual projects into an overarching theme, Art After School teachers also incorporate art history and artistic styles into each project. When Felver's class studied Edvard Munch's well-known painting, The Scream, her students recreated the work with soft pastels, substituting photos of themselves for the painting's distraught subject.
"We relate a lot of what we do to past artists," Felver said. "So the kids can understand why we do this technique."
Art After School attendee Natalie Hammond gave her full attention to layering teal, black and orange paint onto the rock she painted in her fifth and sixth grade class.
Even though she isn't sure how she ended up attending Art After School ("My mom just signed me up," she said), the 10-year-old reported a positive satisfaction rating.
"I've been making lots of new friends." she said. "(And) the teachers are really nice."
Watching the students support each other's work is one of Herrmann's greatest pleasures when she moves through the Art After School classrooms.
"Kids usually aren't very concerned about how great their art is. They're not so critical about it like adults can be," she said. "They're very accepting of what they do."
Herrmann's desire to see as many Grant County students as possible tap into their inner creativity led Herrmann to create a summer art camp similar to Art After School. She hires Taylor students to teach the week-long camp, which had 115 students of all grades last summer.
She tries to keep the cost low for both courses. Art After School costs $10 for five weeks and the summer camp cost $50 for the week, with some scholarships available.
"I started both of these programs for my students to have experience, mainly for the elementary methods class," Herrmann said. "(But with) the summer art camp I really felt like there's such a lack of art opportunities in Grant County, especially for children. I just think it's such a necessary part of their education, to be able to think and see visually."
The Art After School art exhibit runs from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10. The exhibit, held in the Metcalf gallery, is free to the public.
