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for Schools By Sunnie Dawn Smith

10 • www.adahub.com T he Ada Arts Council is always looking for new ways to help the community and grow the development of the arts. Current president Michelle Lastrina sees the importance of art in every aspect of society. Art doesn’t have to be divorced from the other academic disciplines. It can be integrated together in order to present a more holistic view of the world and the beauty in everything. One reason that this idea particularly resonates with Lastrina is because she is an artist as well as an East Central University associate math professor of mathematics professor. While she didn’t set out to be a math professor, that is the direction her life took.

“I’ve always enjoyed math; each problem is its own puzzle to solve,” Lastrina said. “It’s also a great exercise in developing critical thinking and problemsolving skills.”

Though she majored in mathematics in college, she minored in studio art and is fascinated by the way the two disciplines can work together. She even developed a math and art unit for one of the general education mathematics classes at ECU. Lastrina joined the AAC in 2017 and soon after became secretary. When the presidency became vacant, she decided to take on a new leadership position. She already had experience leading and serving on committees at ECU and knew that her experience could help the AAC board. She is looking forward to helping the board and council grow and evolve. One of the ways that the AAC is expanding their reach in the community is by implementing an art box program. Originally the idea of former Ada Arts Council president Michelle Lastrina is helping lead an art box project to provide resources to local teachers to help expand students’ understanding of art and its connection to other aspects of education and life PHOTO BY NICHOLAS GEISLER.

president, Rebecca NicholsonWeir, Lastrina and her board have run with the idea.

“They are modeled after inquiry boxes available for teachers to borrow at many art and natural history museums,” Lastrina said. “We hope to provide resources to area teachers to implement instruction in the classroom that they may not usually have the time or resources for and to supply high quality art supplies for these projects.”

The boxes provide everything that a teacher would need in order to use them effectively. Each box includes a lesson plan, curricular activities, supplemental material and also all the supplies that the teacher and their students would need in order to complete the project.

The AAC currently has two boxes that they are testing this spring. The first box has a theme of math and art and focuses on the abstract works of Piet Mondrian while incorporating the Fibonacci sequence. This would allow students to fully realize the innate connection between art and math and could broaden their ideas of both areas of study. Students who consider themselves more aligned with math and science can see how their interests can be incorporated into art, and the students who see themselves as more artistic can understand math in a different way.

The other art box has a screen-printing theme and features images by local artists, Erica Eppler and Cody Wilson. This box will let the students delve into a type of art that they don’t normally get in school. Schools focus on painting, drawing or sculpting often because of time and budget concerns. Screen-printing allows students to open up their ideas about art, especially with the ability to print their artwork on a variety of materials. In addition to these benefits, it also opens the students up to the work of current local artists to let them know being a working artist is a very real possibility. Artists don’t just exist in textbooks.

The AAC could not have done this alone, though. Lastrina said they have received tremendous community support.

“We have already received support and help from sources, including the McKeel Charitable Trust, Off Main T-Shirt Co. and EVEM Landscape Design,” she said. “We hope to fully launch these first two boxes in the fall and plan to create more. We encourage anyone interested in learning more about or being involved with the Art Box Project in some way to contact us.” Another way that the community can help with programs like the art boxes is by becoming a member of the AAC. They have a variety of levels of support that help with the art boxes but also other artistic events throughout the year, including Cozy Up with the Arts, A Taste of Ada, Outstanding Adan in the Arts, scholarships and art shows for both students and adults. Their 2020 Student Member Art Show will have its opening reception from 5:00-6:30 p.m. on Feb. 24 at the Ada Public Library at 124 S. Rennie Ave.

For more information or to become a member, visit their website www.adaartsok.org, their Facebook page at Ada Arts Council or email them at adaartsok@gmail.com.