Washington Middle School AIE Project on Exhibit

“Health Impressions: A Selection of Artwork for El Dorado’s School Based Health Center” will be on display in the Lobby Gallery of the South Arkansas Arts Center from May 15-29. An artist reception for the students who created the works will be hosted in the gallery on May 21 at 5:30pm.

The exhibition, designed by Katie Harwell’s Fifth and Sixth Grade Studio Art students from Washington Middle School under the direction of Arts in Education artist Maria Villegas, is part of a health and arts based project “Breaking Barriers.” The project was generously supported by the El Dorado Education Foundation, SAAC, the Arkansas Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The project combined literacy and the arts by providing the student’s opportunities to focus on data based questioning and writing accurate summaries and research papers about health careers. With the assistance of Villegas, Debbie McAdams, School Based Health Center Administrator, and several health professionals, the students learned about many medical careers and studied various painting techniques. The original artwork created through this project will be permanently displayed in the SBHC, located on the WMS campus.