Lens on Learning
Making Art more than a “Special”
W
ith cameras in hand, students at six Midcoast schools work to capture a story they’ll later tell with pictures and words, being creative outside of the 45 minutes of art class they may receive each week. “Every year a teacher says, this student doesn’t participate in class, but he loves doing this,” said Andrea Curtis, Art-in-Education Project Manager at the Farnsworth Art Museum. The Farnsworth, in the center of Rockland, works with 300 students and their teachers in a year-long arts-integrated school initiative to tell the stories of their community through art in a project called Stories of the Land and its People. Stories of the Land was organized so that students in grades 4 and 7 could learn from their teachers (specialty and classroom), museum professionals, and mentor artists about how to use the arts— especially digital photography—in their studies of English Language Arts, History, Social Sciences and other disciplines. For example, students may take pictures of the people who work where they live doing different jobs and then share a poem about that person, integrating the art of photography with English. “I remember one father saying that he read a poem about a picture his son took and he said to me ‘I didn’t know my son had this in him.’ We’re really moved by how we’re reaching out to these communities. It’s their museum,” said Roger Dell the museum’s Director of Education.
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Maine Educator • December 2015
The Farnswoth Art Museum’s Andrea Curtis, Art-in-Education Project Manager and Roger Dell, Director of Education
“If we’re going to have a creative workforce, then creativity must be mirrored for our students by teachers and visiting artists. We’re trying to work with teachers to bring art to bear upon all of their subjects.” - Roger Dell
