The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts is expanding its arts education opportunities thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation.
The grant will allow ASMSA to offer additional outreach programs for prospective students, unique camp experiences and expanded residential courses that include visits to regional art museums, study abroad and a unique crafting class.
The Windgate Charitable Foundation supports arts education programs, K-12 school improvement programs, higher education initiatives as well as some social service programs. The foundation is based in Siloam Springs and was founded in 1993.
ASMSA Director Corey Alderdice said these new opportunities will underscore the kind of unique experiences available in an environment such as ASMSA while leveraging its specialized approach to interdisciplinary learning.
“Over a decade ago, the Arkansas General Assembly challenged ASMSA to include the arts as a core component of its mission. Though support from the state has been limited to achieve that vision, we have made it an institutional priority to ensure talented students in the arts and humanities find an engaging program of study at ASMSA. The Windgate grant ensures we are able to better identify talented students in these subjects while providing them with the kind of dynamic opportunities that are synonymous with ASMSA.”
To achieve its goals, ASMSA will use the grant to increase arts education opportunities in three components. The first is by offering additional outreach events that provide prospective students and their parents with greater opportunities to learn about the school. Those include a combination of outreach events, Saturday enrichment activities and focused summer bridge programs.
Chief among those is the ASMSA Summer Arts Bridge. Students from across the state will have the chance to spend a week on ASMSA’s campus while attending an arts education-based camp, meeting other students who share their passion for the subject, and connect with current ASMSA faculty and staff.
One camp, which will be led by ASMSA art instructor Brad Wreyford, will focus on studio art. Studio Art is an activities-based initiative to help grow students’ excitement about the arts. Students will engage in different processes including oil painting, observational drawing, collage, abstract design, basic woodshop skills and art criticism. After-hours activities will include art-based movie nights, T-shirt designing and performing arts. Students will interact with professional artists and current ASMSA seniors
ASMSA instructors James Katowich and Dr. Brian Monson will lead the Folk Music camp. Folk Music offers students a chance to spend a week living on the ASMSA campus in Hot Springs while learning to play and perform folk songs, building a working four-string guitar and exploring the physics behind the production of sound and music. No previous experience or musical training is required.
Fourteen students may attend each of the camps, which will be held June 12-17. Both weeklong residential camps in the Summer Arts Bridge program are at no cost to the students thanks to the grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation. For more information, visit http://asmsa.me/summeratasmsa.
The second component is the development of novel and innovative elective courses available only at ASMSA. The core idea of the new courses is that art must be experienced as both a student of the concepts as well as a practitioner of the craft.
The Local Art Survey course will involve travel, instruction and creation. Extended trips to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex as well as daytrips to Eurkea Springs, Little Rock and Memphis will provide opportunities to experience and reflect on the mid-South’s distinct styles and acclaimed artists. Each trip will include a hands-on experience.
ASMSA will also add new layers to existing study abroad opportunities through its Global Learning Program. Renaissance Art and Architecture in Context this spring and Ancient Greek Art and Architecture in spring 2017 will include a 10-day trip to Italy and Greece where students will be able to gain some context to the class-based lessons.
Modern Design and Craft, the final additional course, will leverage ASMSA’s advanced STEM opportunities by bringing design thinking and craft into the curriculum. The class will focus on the design and creation of functional craft and furniture. Students will use tools such as 3D printers, CNC mills, and laser cutters alongside traditional woodshop resources for a digital design and practical craft experience.
“We are most excited about this class as an opportunity to better engage our STEM students on artistic principles and see it as a tremendous way to make use of ASMSA’s new Maker Space classroom,” Alderdice said.
The third component of the grant will bring two local artists on campus for a three-day workshop. The visits will include a public lecture, multiple demonstrations, small group critiques and displays of the artists’ works in our gallery. The workshops will provide students greater opportunities to engage with Hot Springs’ thriving community of local artists.
Wreyford said the added emphasis to the arts program is already showing results.
“It is no coincidence that for the first time in the history of our institution all of our art courses are operating at their full capacity,” Wreyford said. “There is a direct correlation between the investment made by the Windgate Foundation and the creative interest and success of our students.
“The expansion of our tool and media budget is allowing for more hands-on experiences in processes otherwise out of reach for most students. Woodworking and digital fabrication processes will soon become a standard in their creative repertoire. The travel grant has aided in the expansion of their visual experiences into other cultures and monuments of artistic and historical significance. We are very grateful for this investment in the students of Arkansas. Undoubtedly, the current recipients of these benefits and future generations of Arkansans will reap the benefits.”