Arts-Photography Reflections program seeks to bridge the arts gap in schools - St. Petersburg Times |
| Reflections program seeks to bridge the arts gap in schools - St. Petersburg Times Posted: 29 Oct 2009 01:37 AM PDT | By Ernest Hooper, Times Staff Writer SEFFNER — The artful painting of a car towing an Airstream van belied the young skills of 5-year-old kindergartener Gatlin Grygiel. The sea scene crafted by 7-year-old second-grader Aidan Wallace also seemed beyond his years, and the city night lights work of fifth-grader Violet Rivera, 12, also drew a lot of attention. Many Lopez Elementary students displayed artwork — paintings, drawings and photography — during a showcase at the Seffner-Mango Library on Monday, and proud parents streamed in to see how their students fared in the PTA's Reflections art program. It's a scene being played out all around Hillsborough County. Last year, more than 1,000 students from 50 schools participated in the national contest, and local PTA officials hope to surpass that number this year. At Lopez, students submitted more than 300 entries. Now in its 40th year, Reflections allows students to compete in six categories: visual arts, photography, film/video, dance choreography, music composition and literature. According to the PTA's national Web site, Reflections is meant to enhance arts education, not replace it. However, the importance of the contest gained greater significance locally with art classes being reduced to once a week for 30 minutes, as part of $34.5 million in budget cuts approved by the School Board last spring. Although Lopez is not a magnet school, it still tries to maintain its status as an arts attractor school thanks to funding by the PTA. The fourth- and fifth-grade classes usually enjoy classes in ceramics, photography, bookmaking, African drumming and guitar, but with cuts and a greater emphasis on classroom rigor, the classes have been limited to fifth-graders. The cuts also eliminated art classes for kindergarteners. Jayne Alfieri, a professional graphic artist who chaired Lopez's Reflections program, worries about the impact. "It's important to get kids to do art because they learn to make mistakes," said Alfieri, whose daughter Emili was one of four Lopez kindergarteners chosen to advance to the countywide competition. "If they never learn to make mistakes, they'll never be inventive." Ernest Hooper can be reached at hooper@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3406. [Last modified: Oct 29, 2009 04:30 AM] This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Arts-Photography - Bing News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment