Two dozen children in bright aprons carefully drew and painted Cubist-style faces during an after-school art program Oct. 6 at Perrywood Elementary School in Largo.
The school’s Parent Teacher Association partnered with a local artist for the inaugural session of a program at low cost to parents to supplement the school system’s arts instruction.
“We want to get art back in the schools,” said Pam Virgil, the PTA secretary. “We want to teach them art beyond the basic level they’re learning here. We want them to start learning about the history of art.”
Art teachers in Prince George’s County rotate between three or four elementary schools, spending a couple of weeks to a month in each school, said Brenda T. Makle, the visual arts supervisor for the county school system.
But the 40 parents at Perrywood Elementary who tried to enroll their children in the after-school program — the class was capped at 25 — don’t think the in-school instruction is enough.
“When [children] use that side of their brain, the art side, that allows them to think creatively, and they’re able to do so many other things academically,” said PTA president Tanya Winters, whose second-grade daughter and first-grade son are in the program.
Que Gaskins, the art instructor, led the kindergarten, first- and second-grade students Oct. 6 to create their colorful masterpieces. The students will return for three more weekly sessions this month in which they will complete another painting and two sculptures, Winters said.
Autumn Winters, Tanya Winters’ 7-year-old daughter, painted beads and bows in the hair of her work of cubist art.
“I made her have rainbow hair, because I like colors and how paint is so soft and squishy,” said Autumn, who wants to be an art teacher when she grows up.
Third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students will be invited to participate in the second series of classes sometime this school year on influential 20th-century artists with Gaskins, a former county schools art teacher who now owns a Bowie-based traveling art studio called Gild the Lily.
The classes, which cost parents $15 per child and are subsidized by the PTA, encourage children to be creative and to imagine, Gaskins said.
“They’re not being challenged enough, because they have so much structure,” she said. “It also balances their minds. This is an outlet for them to use their own imagination.”
The idea for the art program at Perrywood Elementary stemmed partially from in-class art instruction parent volunteers give at Tulip Grove Elementary School in Bowie, Winters said.
About four times during the school year, parents lead students in each grade to learn the history of and complete an art project about Roman mosaics, Egyptian hieroglyphs or another topic, said Lori Morrow, president of the Tulip Grove Elementary PTA. All of the students’ projects are displayed at a spring art show.
Tulip Grove Elementary parents started their art program 17 years ago, Morrow said, because arts instruction often is at risk of being cut in tight budget climates.
“Creativity is important,” Morrow said. “A lot of kids learn in different ways, and we should provide our kids with every opportunity we can.”
abrownback@gazette.net
Copyright © 2012 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net