Lowell Elementary hosted local artist Ben Mann to teach art workshops and help to create a mural for the school library during the month of February.
Mann spent 40 hours, 20 in the classroom and 20 in the art room, between the 10 classes at Lowell. Mann taught the students his illustrative techniques and then let them apply their newly learned skills in the art room. Mann’s style involves first outlining designs in chalk, then painting around the lines and finally removing the chalk to create a black outline around the shapes. His imaginative drawings can be seen in Bellingham at Mallard’s, Avenue Bakery and Mambo Italiano.
“Ben has a very unique style, which is bright and colorful,” Lowell Principal Melissa Ferguson said. “We wanted the children to create a visual for the characteristics of a leader.”
While the kindergarten to fifth grade students learned new techniques from Mann, 45, the main goal for his visit was to create a mural to install in the school library to reflect leadership qualities.
“The 11 leadership qualities represented in the project are: individuality, tolerance, optimism, creativity, exploration, inspiration, responsibility, integrity, empathy, cooperation and balance,” Lowell PTA President Wendy Jones said. “Ben met with our PTA and we mapped out the project together. We decided that each cut out shape should represent a different leadership trait or quality. The cut outs would be in "house" shapes to represent community.” The 10 classes each helped paint one of the houses and the PTA painted the eleventh one.
“Our library will have exciting and inspiring collaborative art pieces that will remind the kids every day of the leadership qualities within themselves,” Jones said.
“We’ve been making time for art,” said Lilly, 10, of Beth Kealy’s fifth grade class. The students got the opportunity to take time off science and math to paint with Mann.
The art project was made possible by cooperation from the Bellingham School District, Lowell Elementary PTA and an Allied Arts Grant. The grant was used to pay for the time spent by Mann and the PTA paid for the materials such as paint.
“I worked with the director of Allied Arts and a teacher who was participating in the Arts Impact Program,” Ferguson said. “We looked at different projects that had been previously done and chose Ben.”
“The Allied Arts of Whatcom County established the Education Project in 2002. It has brought together local arts organizations, schools, artists and art enthusiasts to provide high-quality arts education for Whatcom County students,” according to the Allied Arts website.
“The Allied Arts Education Project is committed to supporting our community, develop equal access arts education programs that create cultural awareness, engage all intelligences, and promote the value of arts as basic education,” according to the Allied Arts website. One of the program’s main goals is to advocate for arts education. The U.S. House of Representative and the U.S. Senate are currently looking to create a legislation to cut $4 billion in domestic spending which includes $40 million Arts in Education programs being terminated. The Allied Arts Education Project believes in keeping the arts alive for students inside and outside of the classroom.
Jones explained how the staff was thrilled to have Mann visit Lowell and that he was wonderful to work with. “The kids really responded to him and enjoyed learning a new technique,” Jones said. “It was a great project.”
“You have the ability and the materials on site to keep this wonderful creative outlet alive in your classroom,” said Mann to the Lowell staff. “This was a real highlight in my years as an artist and as an Arts Educator.”
Mann spent 40 hours, 20 in the classroom and 20 in the art room, between the 10 classes at Lowell. Mann taught the students his illustrative techniques and then let them apply their newly learned skills in the art room. Mann’s style involves first outlining designs in chalk, then painting around the lines and finally removing the chalk to create a black outline around the shapes. His imaginative drawings can be seen in Bellingham at Mallard’s, Avenue Bakery and Mambo Italiano.
“Ben has a very unique style, which is bright and colorful,” Lowell Principal Melissa Ferguson said. “We wanted the children to create a visual for the characteristics of a leader.”
While the kindergarten to fifth grade students learned new techniques from Mann, 45, the main goal for his visit was to create a mural to install in the school library to reflect leadership qualities.
“The 11 leadership qualities represented in the project are: individuality, tolerance, optimism, creativity, exploration, inspiration, responsibility, integrity, empathy, cooperation and balance,” Lowell PTA President Wendy Jones said. “Ben met with our PTA and we mapped out the project together. We decided that each cut out shape should represent a different leadership trait or quality. The cut outs would be in "house" shapes to represent community.” The 10 classes each helped paint one of the houses and the PTA painted the eleventh one.
“Our library will have exciting and inspiring collaborative art pieces that will remind the kids every day of the leadership qualities within themselves,” Jones said.
“We’ve been making time for art,” said Lilly, 10, of Beth Kealy’s fifth grade class. The students got the opportunity to take time off science and math to paint with Mann.
The art project was made possible by cooperation from the Bellingham School District, Lowell Elementary PTA and an Allied Arts Grant. The grant was used to pay for the time spent by Mann and the PTA paid for the materials such as paint.
“I worked with the director of Allied Arts and a teacher who was participating in the Arts Impact Program,” Ferguson said. “We looked at different projects that had been previously done and chose Ben.”
“The Allied Arts of Whatcom County established the Education Project in 2002. It has brought together local arts organizations, schools, artists and art enthusiasts to provide high-quality arts education for Whatcom County students,” according to the Allied Arts website.
“The Allied Arts Education Project is committed to supporting our community, develop equal access arts education programs that create cultural awareness, engage all intelligences, and promote the value of arts as basic education,” according to the Allied Arts website. One of the program’s main goals is to advocate for arts education. The U.S. House of Representative and the U.S. Senate are currently looking to create a legislation to cut $4 billion in domestic spending which includes $40 million Arts in Education programs being terminated. The Allied Arts Education Project believes in keeping the arts alive for students inside and outside of the classroom.
Jones explained how the staff was thrilled to have Mann visit Lowell and that he was wonderful to work with. “The kids really responded to him and enjoyed learning a new technique,” Jones said. “It was a great project.”
“You have the ability and the materials on site to keep this wonderful creative outlet alive in your classroom,” said Mann to the Lowell staff. “This was a real highlight in my years as an artist and as an Arts Educator.”
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