Taking arts education to the next level

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

By Susan Burkitt

School may be out for summer, but pARTners, the Teton County School District and local arts organizations are still hard at work, meeting Monday and Tuesday at the Center for the Arts to brainstorm on how to bring more project-based, arts-centered learning to all grade levels with the help of national educational consultant Michelle Swanson.

“All the projects are linked to the respective grade’s [curriculum] standards,” said Marylee White, pARTners coordinator and liaison between resident arts organizations and local schools. “The kids learn skills that can be built on with an integrated curriculum – and through these projects they can discover theater, dance, photography and architecture.”

A senior trainer with Swanson & Cosgrave Consulting based in Eugene, Ore., Swanson has worked nationwide in curriculum design and research-based instructional strategies, including project-based learning. She first worked with pARTners six or seven years ago to assist the group in putting together arts-based projects that met new state and federal curriculum standards.

“She knows our school district, many of our teachers and is familiar with our arts community,” White said. 

For next week’s meetings, Swanson will focus on creating a process for all local arts organizations to share project information.

“We’ll map all the projects that all the organizations have planned and be able to see where projects have overlap and also identify areas of need,” White said.

Going into its 13th year, pARTners has evolved from a grant process funding arm for arts-based projects brought to the organization by teachers, to developing the projects in-house for teachers at different grade levels, so that teachers only need to sign up for them, White said.

For the last two years, this “project in a box” approach has allowed for projects such as Dancers’ Workshop’s “Dancing Alphabet” to have participation by all local kindergarten classes, including Moran and Kelly. Another example is the “Nature of Learning” project for the second grade classes, which was a collaboration between pARTners and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.

“We would like a partner for every project,” White said. By mapping out their plans, the organizations can work collaboratively rather than separately and avoid conflicting or repeating projects, White noted.

Next week’s meetings are open to anyone interested in bringing arts-based projects to the schools, and will include representatives from the school district, the Teton Literacy Program, Dancers’ Workshop, local theater and music organizations, and individual teachers and artists. The meetings will take place 9 a.m.-3 p.m. both days at 240 S. Glenwood in the Center for the Arts’ conference room. Childcare funds are available.  For more information, or to RSVP, call White at 733-2565.

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The Center for the Arts’ ArtSpace Gallery kicks off its summer exhibition series next Thursday with the opening of  “Culture of Nature: Uncommon Botany.” Artists Mari Andrews, Ron Klein, Michael Sherrill and John Oldani will present their works – faux flora, and sometimes fauna, rendered via unique uses of found objects, such as seed casings and pods, metal scraps, wire and porcelain. The show will run until Aug. 24.

As part of the special show, the Art Association has resurrected its popular “Thank God it’s Art” program. Sherrill, a self-taught artist from the western North Carolina mountains and an instructor at Penland School of Crafts, will present a slide lecture and lunch program at 1 p.m. tomorrow.

“Like all artists, you want to make something with meaning,” Shirrill said of the slideshow he has planned. “I want to show the audience the world I live in … what I feed on that helps the work, which for me is the environment I live in and my family.”
Sherrill lives in a refurbished 1800s Appalachian log cabin with his wife and three young children, ages 10, 7 and 4 months.

The slideshow will provide the audience with “an understanding of where I came from … the groundwork for the life I’ve lived.”

Also an inventor, Sherrill is the creator of Mudtools, a series of ribs, wiretools and shredders for potters and sculptors.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” he said. “I’m just as excited about the work now as I was then.”

“Thank God It’s Art – Revived!” will focus on Sherrill’s porcelains, which provide close-ups of leaves and other flora without creating exact copies. Sherrill uses vibrant color to highlight his subject’s attributes. The artist is represented by Ferrin Gallery in Lenox, Mass.

Lunch is available for $8. RSVP to the Art Association 733-6379.

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Starting this Friday, besides your skinny mocha and poppyseed with a schmear at Pearl Street Bagels, 145 W. Pearl, be sure to check out the oils on canvas by local artist Emily Boespflug.

Boespflug is a lead instructor for the Art Association’s children’s programs and holds a BFA from the University of Wyoming with a focus on painting. Hailing from the Tongue River Valley, Boespflug celebrates the natural world with works in oils, watercolors and pastels. She uses intense color to draw the observer into her work.

Later this year, Boespflug will show her work at Ciao Gallery in Victor, Idaho. The show, which will also feature photographer Betsy Morrison, is slated for Oct. 27.

Call Pearl Street at 739-1218 for more information. Ciao Gallery can be reached at (208) 787-4841.

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It seems a fourth artist has joined the group at Trio Fine Art, 545 N. Cache.
Russell Chatham, the renowned self-taught landscape painter, lithographer and writer who lives in Livingston, Mont., will visit Jackson on June 21 for the opening of his latest lithographs, “The Prairie Series,” and to unveil two original paintings, “The Heart of Winter” and “Evening Moon Rising.”

Chatham had previously been represented in Jackson by the now-defunct Martin Harris Gallery and was looking to find a new local venue for his work, Trio co-owner and artist September Vhay said.  Lee Carlman Riddell, another of Trio’s owner/artists, was an acquaintance of Chatham’s and invited him to give Trio a look.  “He liked the scale and the small focus and the fact that it was artist-run,” Vhay said.

The Prairie Series includes “Chestnut Collared Longspur,” the first wildlife portrait done by Chatham. The remaining works in the series, however, are more in keeping with the artist’s contemplative vistas.

Chatham’s lithographs are original, meaning that the plates used to make the lithograph are hand-painted by the artist and not reproduced through photographs. Mechanically generated lithographs use four colors, one plate for each color. When artists like Chatham do originals, as many as 50 colors may be used, each added by hand to a plate and then applied to the paper.

Festivities at Trio Fine Art on June 21 will start with a conversation with the artist” 5-6 p.m. and will continue with hors d’oeuvres and refreshments 6-8 p.m. Vhay noted that the AC is working now (!) and that RSVPs are requested. Call 734 - 4444 for more information or to RSVP.

Courtesy Photo, Tirio Fine Art
“Storm Across the Prairie,” original lithograph, 22X34, 2007, Russell Chatham. From Chatham’s “The Prairie Series,” opening at Trio Fine Art. During the show, the series will be discounted to $1,800, unframed.

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