FALL ARTS FESTIVAL, Jackson Hole News&Guide, Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - 3E
BRADLY J. BONER / NEWS&GUIDE FILE photos
Jackson Hole High School students Cora Mitchell, Lindsay Jennings and Cassidy Ballard use a stencil to paint lettering on recycling bins last fall. The dumpster decorating was part of a project in their art class.
CREATIVE learning
Arts programs remain robust in Jackson Hole schools.
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C-Bar-V Ranch and Red Top Meadows. It also offers after-school activities and summer partnerships to budding artists of all ages and classes at the Center for the Arts. When visiting artists come to town to do programs with the organization, they are inevitably impressed by Jackson students’ artistic abilities and how easily they can grasp concepts, Boespflug said. “Arts programs here are so strong, it’s amazing,” she said. “The passion for the arts in Jackson comes through the schools. I think we could be a leader in the state if not the region.” Boespflug and Terrapin dream of taking Teton County’s art offerings to the rest of the Equality State. “Being from Wyoming, I’m blown away by how much art we have in the schools and community,” Boespflug said. “There are a lot of opportunities here that you don’t see across the state. One of my big visions and dreams is to expand across the state.”
By Brielle Schaeffer
he national news is full of reports of school districts cutting arts programs to save money. In Jackson Hole’s public schools, however, the story is different. Instead of a separate art class in which students make stand-alone projects, they integrate painting, drawing and other creative pursuits into lessons in Teton County School District No. 1. “Research has shown the positive impact art education has on the development of youth,” said district Superintendent Pam Shea. “It is imperative that public education has strong, vibrant art programs accessible to all youth.” The arts help children develop creativity, said Amelia Terrapin, a dancer who developed Mobius, which teaches scientific concepts — the differences between liquids and solids, planetary motion, the water cycle — through movement. “By exposing more kids to different art forms,” she said, “it gives them more opportunities to find their own mode of selfexpression.” Shannon Borrego, a Jackson Hole High School art teacher, said she has always enjoyed “a tremendous amount of support” from the district. “It’s an essential part of developing a whole person,” she said.
Not state mandates alone
The state of Wyoming mandates that schools fund fine and performing arts in what’s called its “basket of educational goods and services.” But strong arts programs don’t depend on state laws alone. Teton County schools benefit from organizations such as the Art Association of Jackson Hole and pARTners supplementing in-school and out-of-school learning. “Something that’s a little bit unique about Jackson is the support from the nonprofits,” Borrego said. “There are a lot of opportunities for students to become more involved in their community of artists outside of school.” Marylee White is the executive director for the nearly 20-year-old pARTners.
Ryan Angeloni executes a guitar solo as Makina Waatti belts out the lyrics to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” during the 2013 Jackson Hole Rock Camp student showcase at the Pink Garter Theatre.
“A lot of people, no matter how many times I say it, they don’t understand that what pARTners does is very different than what is considered arts education in the schools,” White said. “What pARTners is trying to do is to teach creative thinking.” The mission of pARTners is to integrate the arts into every classroom: science, math, history and language arts. When students use their hands, “they’re actually creating something tangible,” White said. “It automatically creates critical thinking. It just happens, because basically an idea is being articulated and expressed through something you make with your hands. There’s this dialogue between eye, mind and hand.” Last year pARTners paid for artists to come into classrooms to teach students to dance the salsa, with instructions in Spanish. They explored nature and wrote poetry and even decorated a quilt to symbolize unity. Through pARTners artists spent an average of 65 hours a week in classrooms. “What we bring into the classroom is something tangible,” White said, “whether it’s an essay or poetry or it’s actually a visual 3-D object.” Such projects and methods also favor different types of learners, she said.
“It provides another way for some kids to shine who weren’t always the best students,” White said. Emily Boespflug, outreach and youth manager of the Art Association of Jackson Hole, echoed White’s sentiment. “You just have to exercise different parts of your brain,” she said. Art education “fills a void with people that have a different way of learning and understanding the world.”
A way of learning
Teaching concepts through the arts helps make both more accessible, she said. “Arts can be a release and a way of learning,” Boespflug said. “It’s easier to get a hold of for a lot of people. It makes more sense. Music, art, math are all really related in pretty interesting ways.” This summer the Art Association hosted Denver artists Monica and Tyler Aiello, who taught students about planetary science and engineering through art projects. The Aiellos have worked with NASA scientists to develop their curriculum. The Art Association doesn’t work directly in the public schools as much as pARTners does, but the organization helps fill the gaps and offers programs for the private Jackson Hole Community School,
Not limited to visual arts
Teton County’s school arts programs are not limited to visual arts. The district and the community also understand the importance of dance, music and theater in the development of well-rounded children who are capable of critical thinking and working together as a team. Other arts nonprofits such as Dancers’ Workshop, Off Square Theatre Company, the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Jackson Hole Music Experience have strong relationships with the schools that have helped to usher students from district classrooms to college and university programs and successful careers in the arts. And the commitment goes hand in hand with the latest trend the district is embracing: STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering and math. Last year STEM programs — which include robotics and a new “fabrication lab” at Jackson Hole High School — added an “A” to the acronym: A for art. Now it’s called STEAM. “In science and math there is a certain kind of thinking that goes on,” White said. That thinking often is straightforward, she said: A plus B equals C. “What the arts brings in is divergent thinking,” White said. That type of thinking — creative and innovative — has always been central to progress in America, she said.