pARTners Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Bringing Quality Art Projects to K-12 Classrooms

Jackson, WY — In early May 2024, the Town of Jackson presented pARTners with a proclamation acknowledging 30 years of quality arts programming in Teton County. 

With the proclamation, the Town of Jackson has designated May 2024 as pARTners’ 30th Anniversary Celebration Month, urging all citizens to support its mission of igniting creative thinking and self-expression among Teton County students.

pARTners began in 1994 as a response to arts funding cuts nationwide and the recognition of the critical need for arts education in all Teton County classrooms. Now in its 30th year, we are impacting over 1,130 students through art integration in Teton County. 

Quality art education in school classrooms fosters creativity, critical thinking, and innovation, which are fundamental skills across all disciplines, including science, math, and STEM. 

Art encourages students to explore, experiment, and express themselves, honing problem-solving abilities essential for scientific inquiry and mathematical reasoning. By integrating art into STEM education, students develop a holistic understanding of the interconnectedness of disciplines, fostering thinking crucial for addressing real-world challenges and driving technological advancements.

At the heart of pARTners’ approach lies a unique educational philosophy, emphasizing collaboration between teachers and local artists to craft personalized learning experiences for K-12 students in Teton County. From creating a 3D ecosystem for bees to creating chalk drawings celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, art brings tactile learning opportunities to all students.  

On Wednesday, May 8, pARTners recognized the Teton County School Board #1 during their May meeting with a plaque commemorating their 30-year partnership. This relationship is critical to pARTners’ work and mission and represents how nonprofits working with our school can strengthen programming. 

Later this month on May 28th, continuing the 30th celebration, Hand Fired Pizza is hosting “Pizza for a Purpose,” featuring pARTners as the beneficiary of a portion of that evening’s orders. 

“We are grateful to our friends, donors, teachers and artists who have supported pARTners over the last 30 years,” says Ruth Moran, pARTners Executive Director. “We witness first-hand the arts’ effect on students’ education, confidence, communication and self-expression. pARTners is excited to continue to expand and collaborate, creating a stronger program for the next 30 years.”

E-textiles | 8th Grade

This is a comprehensive S.T.E.A.M. project that integrates arts curriculum into Science. Students will review simple circuits, parallel circuits and switches. Then in conjunction with their Science teacher, they will learn about conductivity, polarity and introductory crafting techniques. Students will integrate circuits into their design and sewing of a piece of clothing, jewelry or cloth panel  bracelet. This project aligns with the new Common Core State Standards while instilling the 21st century skills that are essential to success in the global economy.

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Variables in Art | 5th Grade

In this projects students are learning about the Scientific Method through ART!  Using terms such as independent variable and dependent variable, students are recreating the same image using different artistic mediums: pencil, pastels and paint.  As a result of this project students will make observations about using the different mediums (dependent variable) to come to a conclusion about how it impacted their image (independent variable).

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Dancing Alphabet | Kindergarten

pARTners collaborates with Dancers’ Workshop to teach kindergarteners’ the letters and sounds of the alphabet through a multiple-intelligence approach. Through the Dancing Alphabet, students explore the 26 symbols of the English language, and Dual Immersion students also dive into the Spanish alphabet. The project engages students through multiple cognitive modes: kinesthetic by forming the shapes of letters with their bodies; musical by performing movements choreographed to music; visual-spatial by creating their own costumes (painting t-shirts of their assigned letters) and the set/backdrop of letters; and interpersonal by performing in front of an audience. The final component of the project is the publication of a picture book for each student, incorporating photographs of students performing his/her designated letter. The photographs help the children refine their alphabetical pronunciation and penmanship throughout the year. The project culminates in the students’ performance of the Dancing Alphabet for their parents at Dancers’ Workshop.

“J” is for Jackson | 1st Grade

To deepen the first grade unit on community, pARTners implements several projects starting with the Community Quilt, a creative lesson taught with help from the Jackson Hole Quilt Guild. Students select an image that corresponds with the sound of their assigned letter, and then a pARTners artist helps the students interpret their chosen image into a fabric square. Volunteers from the Quilt Guild stitch the students’ squares into quilts, teaching the students about the importance of patterning and measuring in quilting. The ABC quilts become a proud display in each classroom. The second component of pARTners’ first-grade community curriculum finds students photographing patterns in nature. Guided by a pARTners artist, the project reinforces the concept of patterns, familiarizes children with the Elements of Art and underscores their “sense of place.”

Careers in the Arts | 4th Grade

 

As part of the 4th grade Common Core Standards, students must explore different careers that utilize the arts.  Students interact with a local architect, graphic designer and fashion designer via stations in the classroom.  Students are given a challenge at each station that gives them a clearer understanding of what people do in these professions.  The project allows students to see how art and practical needs come together, and how it impacts the final product.   In addition, students realize in these professions, a person needs to study design, form and marketing.  Students learn that, ultimately, the goal for an arts-based career is to make  products to grab the interest of a potential buyer and convince them to make a purchase (be it clothes, food, or a house.)

Teacher Testimonial:

“I loved this project because it had real life applications.  Community members came into the classroom to show students what art careers look like in this community.”

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Animals of Jackson Hole | 2nd Grade

pARTners supports several projects as part of the second grade’s year-long unit on the wildlife of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. This comprehensive curriculum is designed to teach students about wildlife habitats and behaviors, as well as their role as stewards of the environment. At the start of the school year, pARTners provides every second grader with a blank nature journal and a pARTners artist shares techniques for recording observations in their journals.  Students also collect specimens from the outdoors and learn about the different species of trees in their area, by sketching/rubbing leaves. After the journaling project, a pARTners artist teaches students how to draw animals using geometric shapes, a practice that helps students identify unique characteristics of their animals in order to create accurate illustrations. The Animals of Jackson Hole project concludes with students exploring animal movements with Dancers’ Workshop and singing animals songs that are later choreographed together for a performance for their parents.

The American Dream Project | 6th Grade

As part of the 6th grade The topic was making the American Dream more accessible to all. Students explored the concepts of diversity and discrimination, and how it can fit into the “American Dream.” Then students worked with local artists to create posters that used symbols and colors to illustrate their concepts.
[blockquote size=”full” align=”left” byline=”Student Testimonial”]“After looking at all these posters, I realized how much work there is to do with civil rights. I know we read about this, but the posters made me see it. I want to help.”[/blockquote]

[blockquote size=”full” align=”left” byline=”Teacher Testimonial”]“Students who do not normally interact with each other were complimenting each other’s work, and students who are difficult to engage began to get engaged in this project.”[/blockquote]

Comets and Asteroids| 3rd Grade

In this project, Wyoming Stargazers and pARTners artists work together to provide a hands-on and engaging approach to learning about space, particularly comets and asteroids. The lessons include an introduction to the night sky, motion of the stars, constellations, planets, comets, and asteroids using a 15ft inflatable planetarium dome.

An artist from pARTners will help the students draw and/or paint their own artistic representation of comets or asteroids using what they learned about their structure and composition, as well as their historical significance, from the preceding lessons. Finally, the students will create a comet or asteroid planetarium projection slide that uses a flashlight, overhead projector transparency. The slides will also provide a model for artistically representing scientific knowledge for the teachers to use in future lessons.

Teacher Testimonial: “Students really enjoyed this project, bringing Art and Science together really engaged the students! We want more projects like this in the future.”

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National History Day| 6th-10th Grades

Our goals with this project is to elevate students’ level of understanding of how to create competitive National History Products. Thus, they will need specialized skills instruction for their particular project type – imovie; performance; websites.  At the JHMS/JHHS, Jen Tennican (local historical filmmaker) worked with students to create more dynamic documentaries. While, Caryn Flanagan and Nicole Madison (local actress) worked on elements of a dramatic performance to help students create high quality and engaging projects for the competition.  Lastly, Scott Wood (local web designer) gave feedback to students regarding their National History Day website.