Rogers Arts Academy Increases Museum Visits, Adds iPads

Elementary students from Arkansas Arts Academy fanned out across the galleries inside Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art last week.

"Hey Mom, come here. Look at this picture," said Sahara Pullen, a first-grade student.

Autumn Pullen followed her daughter from painting to sculpture in the gallery listening to excited cries. The balance between owning a creative outlook and channeling that dramatic energy into learning drew her to the charter school, Pullen said.

"If you can have both, then why not go that way," Pullen said.

It's a vision the Rogers-based charter school is trying to make good on.

This summer the school was rebranded with the Arkansas Arts Academy name, administrators sent teachers for art integration training through Arkansas A+, and they received a Walton Family Foundation grant that will provide iPads for every student.

Art is too often the scene-setter for a lesson instead of basing the lesson in the art piece, said Aaron Jones and Paul Stewart, school curriculum coordinators.

Art is based in observation and questioning, Stewart said.

"These are also the first steps of the scientific process, the writing process," he said.

Integration places art at the center of the lesson, instead of just making a lesson more entertaining, Jones said.

An entire history lesson could be made of the Charles Willson Peale portrait of George Washington that was on display at Crystal Bridges this spring, Jones said.

Washington's stance represents an era in portraiture. The six-pointed stars could spur a side lesson into development of the modern flag and Betsy Ross' role. The portrait celebrated victory at Princeton, but the original background was painted out and replaced with a tribute to French aid.

"The kids are excited because they found the details, and that's arts integration," Stewart said.

Art is moving to the center of the lessons at the school, but it is a process, Jones said.

"This is our building phase," he said.

Lines blur between fields, Stewart said. Painter and ornithologist John James Audubon created art, but he documented bird species in pursuit of science, Stewart said.

Science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics will come together in the arts-infused curriculum being developed at the charter school, Stewart said.

Technology is part of the equation. A rollout of teacher iPads started this week.

Every student will be using an iPad in class in January. Teachers will pilot applications and test drive textbooks on the iPads this spring, Stewart said. The technology rollout will be a school-wide test in preparation for fall, he said.

Field trips to the museum are part of a renewed art-focus at the school. Students visit with classmates, but twice a month parents join their children for a tour.

Parents can be the teachers, too, and the monthly visits are part of that, Stewart said.

"If families are learning together, then kids come to school ready to learn," he said.

Parent Melodie Schultz said she is a regular at the museum.

"We come a lot," Schultz said. "There's always something new."

Schultz's seventh-grader, Mary Jayne Maynard, said Jonathan Schipper's "Slow Room" is her favorite piece. Kindergartner Mac Maynard said his favorite part of the school day are special classes, like art.

Skylee Smith, a fourth-grader, said she expresses her creativity through crocheting and sewing. Her mother, Lisa Smith, said she hopes her daughter was inspired by the museum visit. Lisa Smith likes the idea of students painting in math class instead of doing worksheets.

"They all have to pass the same tests. They don't have to get there the same," she said.

Every person has a different form of expression, said Zev Slurzberg, Crystal Bridges school and community programs manager. Science hits the mark for some, writing or art for others.

"Art is problem solving," he said, noting that getting the vision to become a reality can be more difficult than it sounds.