SAAC is featuring the artwork of local public school students in the Arts In Education (AIE) Showcase to the Merkle and Price Galleries April 1-26. The El Dorado High School exhibit “Cultural Connections” will be in the Merkle Gallery. The Price Gallery will be the focal point of elementary student art with exhibits “A Pine Tree Christmas” and “Shoot for the Moon.” There will be a reception honoring the students and their teachers on Tuesday, April 16 from 5:30pm-7:00pm.
artists Lisa Burton Tarver, Katie Harwell, Jorge Villegas, Maria Botti Villegas, and Mike Means
Local AIE artists Jorge Villegas, Maria Botti Villegas, Lisa Burton Tarver, and Mike Means spend countless hours each school year working with students and their teachers in the El Dorado School District. The Arkansas AIE program is designed to strengthen the role of the arts in preK-12 educational settings by fostering participation in the arts as an integral part of life and the basic education process.
“Cultural Connections” in the Merkle Gallery is a collaboration of El Dorado High School (EHS) Visual Art 1 and Art Appreciation students grades 9-12, EHS art teacher Katie Harwell, and AIE artists Jorge Villegas, Maria Botti Villegas, and Lisa Burton Tarver. The exhibit includes student art projects that celebrate both local and distant culture using such mediums as quilting, paper collage, watercolors, pen and ink illustrations, and dark room photography.
In the Price Gallery, the exhibit “A Pine Tree Christmas” features a project led by AIE artist Lisa Burton Tarver which was videoed by award-winning film makers Alexander Jeffery and Paul Peterson of Bespoke Video. This project was conducted in local schools – Northwest Elementary, Yocum Elementary, and Hugh Goodwin Elementary – where students made 3D Christmas tree collages using photos of pine trees, leaves, and berries. The video, along with student classroom photos and a 3D Christmas tree similar to the one that the kids made, will be on display.
Also in the Price Gallery will be the exhibit “Shoot for the Moon” which is the result of a space shuttle project and an eclipse viewing project with 4th graders at Yocum Elementary led by AIE artist Mike Means. The exhibit will feature an over 6-foot tall, 3-dimensional model of the space shuttle, drawings of the space shuttle, and pictures of eclipse-viewing boxes made by the students.
