Student art adds color to learning

SANDPOINT — Anyone with questions about how highly Sandpoint Charter School values its art program has only to look at the walls to find an answer.

This month, about 200 examples of student artwork in several media adorn the hallways as part of the school’s first annual Spring Student Art Show — an event that was made necessary by the popularity of art classes and the pace at which young artists were creating new pieces.

“We realized we had this big body of work we’d accumulated and we wanted to invite people to see it,” said Amy O’Hara, who teaches middle school art at SCS. “There’s not one particular theme; it’s an amalgamation of media.”

The show includes painting, pen and ink, fiber art, small sketches, large murals and weaving, to name a few of the art forms represented. Although student art has been displayed at the Sandpoint branch of the East Bonner County library and other local venues, this is the first time the charter school has been commandeered to serve as art gallery, according to high school art instructor Holly Walker.

“We have about 150 students enrolled in our art classes and we’ve been able to display what they’ve done here,” she said.

Most of the work will come down at the end of the show, but the murals created by students will become permanent fixtures at the school. Along with providing a compelling outreach for the art program, these pieces call out the collaborative nature of education at SCS, O’Hara noted.

A prime example is the Earth Day mural made up of separate panels done by 16 different students. Using an aerial photograph of Lake Pend Oreille, each student artist helped recreate a topographical map using both traditional art materials and “found art” objects gathered during the school’s Earth Day beach cleanup. Close inspection of the panels shows that the lay of the land has been shaped and enhanced by the addition of shards of glass, bits of pottery, metal springs, aluminum foil, candy wrappers and pages from discarded magazines and newspapers.

“We’re resourceful,” O’Hara said. “We try to re-use what we find lying around.”

Art class connects to other academic areas on a daily basis, Walker explained, speaking to what the instructors called the “project-based philosophy” at SCS.

“Teaching through thematic units is something that a smaller school can do really well,” she said.

“It leads to deeper learning,” O’Hara added. “It’s not really so much about art as it is about seeing. It opens your eyes to all academic areas.”

To give an example, Walker drew attention to a pair of group efforts from middle and high school students. Upper grades completed a mural where each student was responsible for a panel that reflected one aspect of the Human Rights Declaration. Middle school students worked on a quilt, hand-stitching the pattern of each of their own hands into a colorful, powerful work that reaches out and touches the viewer.

Both pieces -developed as part of a broader study of human rights at the school — were featured in this years Pend Oreille Arts Council/Human Rights Task Force student art show.

“We’re working, within our school, on collaborating in art and then extending it out into the community,” Walker said.

Collaboration extends, too, from the middle school art curriculum to the high school classes. O’Hara, who received her art training and teaching stripes as a classroom instructor for the POAC Kaleidoscope program, sees her role as that of providing the building blocks for creating art. Walker, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and has her art teaching certification, adds to that foundation.

“In middle school, they study the elements of art and principles of design,” Walker said. “By high school, we’re learning about technique and more advanced subject matter. Once they master technique, their ability to express will improve.”

According to O’Hara, the current art show has spurred student interest in art class as an elective option at SCS, which also offers classes in band, choir and drama as part of its overall arts curriculum.

“I think the show promotes the arts program we’re building here,” she said. “As kids move through the hall, the art stops them and they have conversations about it. Art is empowering — it’s a healthy outlet for kids to express themselves.”

Sandpoint Charter School began in 2001 with about 45 seventh-grade students and has since grown to nearly 225 students attending grades 6-10. The arts curriculum took root about five years ago with one, half-time instructor. Since then, the school has devoted 1.5 instructor positions to art-related studies and has built an additional room for art classes.

“We use projects to teach critical, higher level thinking about content areas and how they link to each other,” said the school’s principal, Alan Millar. “As a result, many of our projects have an artistic element, whether it is digital graphics or an artistic rendering of a scene from a novel. Art is a great way for students to come up with their own connections.” 

As enrollment at Sandpoint Charter School continues to increase — there have been waiting lists at all grade levels for the past two years — older students will begin to attend classes in the new high school facility that has been under construction on the campus. The 20,000-square-foot high school, designed with input from SCS architecture class students, received LEED certification for its energy efficient design and building techniques.

The building’s open areas and natural light will be a boon to art classes, Walker said, but she will have to wait until after next school year to conduct them there, as the school must first complete a $500,000 capital campaign before that wing of the high school can be finished.

A total of $2.3 million already has been secured, school officials said, which will allow for classes to be held next year in the westernmost section of the new building. The additional money is needed to fund interior finish work and provide furnishings for the east side of the high school.

For information on SCS enrollment or how to make tax deductible donations to the capital campaign, call (208) 255-7771 or visit: www.sandpointcharter.org