Partners: Wares Ferry Road Elementary School; Montgomery Art Guild artists

Educators:

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts: Mark Johnson, Director; Timothy Brown, Curator of Education; Donna Pickens, Assistant Curator of Education; Jean Kocher, Art Teacher; Laura Bocquin, Art Teacher

Wares Ferry Road Elementary School: Edward Drozdowski, Principal; Jennifer Shelby, 3rd grade Teacher; Gerod Diggs, 3rd grade Teacher; Kasey Baker, 3rd grade Teacher

Montgomery Art Guild Artists: Matt Johnson, Aimee Harbin, Corey Spearman, Kellie Newsome, Laura Waldo, Peggy Raines, Debra Riffe, Charlie Lucas

Kimberly Gudino, 3rd Grade
Big Red Fish, 2014
Oil pastels, watercolor, tissue paper

Timiya Harris, 3rd Grade
My Angel, 2014
Black glue, pastels

Willie Grant, 3rd Grade
Weird City Bird, 2014
Acrylic paint, markers, colored pencils

The Learning Through Art Artist in Residence Program began in 2013 and features weekly hour-long visual arts programming for third grade classes at Wares Ferry Road Elementary School. Students encounter works of art through teacher-led Visual Thinking Strategy lessons, discussions based on the museum’s permanent collection, and visits with professional artists that touch on specific techniques in drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking. Throughout the program, students’ artistic skills, creative writing, and knowledge of works of art are significantly increased as well as observable gains in the students' visual literacy. As a completion of their program, students exhibit their artwork at both the school and the museum. Learning Through Art meets a need as students are immersed in the program, they develop positive self-expression, creativity, and a better understanding of the visual arts.