USU ArtsBridge Strolls Into Gallery Walk

The second graders of Mrs. Wallin’s class at Edith Bowen Laboratory recently tied the finishing knots on their story quilt soon to be hung at St. John’s Episcopal Church as part of Logan’s Downtown Gallery Walk, Friday, April 17, 6-9 p.m.

For the past ten weeks, the students have delved deep into fairytales and folktales from around the world. With the guiding vision of USU ArtsBridge scholar Jeannine Huenemann, students took this inspiration and created their own class tale which they then illustrated onto quilt squares.

 

USU ArtsBridge is based at USU’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art.

 

The students’ finished quilt, along with several other USU ArtsBridge student projects will be featured alongside oil paintings by professional artist Deborah Banerjee.

 

The USU ArtsBridge scholarship program is part of a national ArtsBridge America consortium that includes leading research universities that have developed a proven program of integrated education, resulting in the creation of original works of art by K-12 classroom students. Projects are designed and led by a USU student scholar and overseen by a USU faculty mentor.

 

“ArtsBridge projects spark imagination, promote collaboration and provide both ArtsBridge scholars and participating children opportunities to develop and refine creative problem-solving skills,” said USU’s program director Laurie Baefsky.

 

St. John’s will also host a display of clay tiles created as part of Hillcrest Elementary’s fourth graders’ exploration into early indigenous Utah cultures. They’ve learned about the Fremont culture, cave paintings and petroglyphs in southern Utah and have created their own versions of rock art, with the theme of “Then and Now.” Their display includes a hands-on table where visitors can create their own tiles.

 

From Summit Elementary in Smithfield, Dave Nagata’s fourth graders will display their culminating project, a 3-D rendering of the complex ecosystem of Cache Valley. The project was led by ArtsBridge scholar and USU physics graduate student Greg Perry.

 

“This was a group project that uses graphic representation to give a sense of place and help each student express how they view their relationship with the environment around them,” Perry said. “Through the use of geometric design, diagrams, graphs, illustrations and drawings, science and art together can present an image that represents a three-dimensional idea and represents a scientific concept.”

 

Each student was given a blank “field guide” for their project which they filled over the winter with definitions, drawings, tracings and their own ideas. Perry led them through the creation of origami trees and mountainscapes, representation of water droplets through shading techniques and conifer branch replication.

 

“The final work is layer upon layer of creativity and learning,” Perry said.

 

ArtsBridge scholars will be on hand at the Gallery Walk to answer questions.

 

All ArtsBridge projects are provided free at no cost to schools. For more information about participating in USU ArtsBridge, contact (435) 760-4889 or visit the Web site.

 

 

Contact: Laurie Baefsky (435) 760-4889, laurie.baefsky@usu.edu
Source: USU ArtsBridge