The Johnson Center for the Arts is bridging the gap between the arts and the classroom through its ArtBridges Summer Workshop program.

Twenty-five teachers attended the 2016 ArtBridges workshop and, this week, more than 150 elementary and high school students benefited directly from the workshop.

Tara Sartorius, Alabama Alliance for Arts Education program director, and Kellie Newsome, Alabama professional artist, conducted the summer workshop and were back to visit local schools and demonstrate how what the teachers learned is being integrated into the classroom.

Vicki Pritchett, Johnson Center for the Art executive director, said Newsome taught the students about the elements of abstract art using paint and brushes and the abstract art of Alabama artist Mary Ann Casey.

“This program – this second step of ArtBridges — has been an outstanding way to bridge the arts and the classroom,” Pritchett said. “The third step in the teaching/learning experience is for the students to attend Mary Ann’s exhibition that is now hanging at the Johnson Center.”

Students from Troy Elementary School and Charles Henderson, Pike County and Pike Liberal Arts high schools participated in the classroom art adventure.

The classes for all students focused on lines and composition.

Using black and white paint and a single brush, the students explored how the lines made by the brush strokes interacted with positive and negative space.

“Some of the students had painted before but some of them had never held a paint brush,” Newsome said. “They learned how to hold the brush and how to swish the brush in water so that in forms a sharp point to draw thin lines. They learned how to use different degrees of pressure to make thick lines and bold lines.”
Sartorius told the students that making art is about motion and action.

“Abstract art can be about something or it can be about nothing,” she said, as she verbally guided the students into making art.

For many of the 150-plus students who participated, the art class was an introduction to abstract art. For a few, it was a lesson on how to hold a paintbrush. For all, it was “a fun time.”

“All of the students seemed to have a good time and they were very engaged,” Pritchett said. “The more we expose students to the different kinds of art and the more opportunities they have to participate in the arts, the more likely they are to generate an interest in the arts. Hopefully, that interest will lead them to the Johnson Center for the Arts where we have outstanding art exhibitions throughout the year.”

Pritchett expressed appreciation to the Alabama State Council on the Arts and to all of the members of the Johnson Center and its sponsors for making it possible to offer ArtBridges and other art programs for people of all ages.