“It’s about learning art skills as well as life skills,” said Emily Grabiec, curator of education for the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (LCVA), of the center’s ART Kids Program.
On a more detailed level, the program of nearly a decade is designed for fourth grade students whose teachers and guidance counselors identify them as at-risk kids who are also interested in art and photography.
According to Grabiec, while ART Kids previously took place exclusively at Prince Edward Elementary School (PECES), the program is expanding to Cumberland County Elementary School (CCES) this year.
Grabiec said the new partnership began because the LCVA was looking to expand to more local schools and received a “very generous grant” from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund that allowed them to do so. She said the program is offered to the two schools free of charge.
Alex Grabiec, LCVA exhibition manager and head ART Kids teacher, noted that “the program uses photography to teach children positive ways to communicate, and so we do that through classroom activities, by going out to photograph and critique.”
To begin the program this year, Alex Grabiec will go to PECES and CCES on Sept. 19 and 20, respectively, with two to three volunteers for a classroom day. He said the students may learn about famous photographers and artists, talk about photos and take part in a hands-on activity that reflects what they learned. The fourth graders will also plan on what kind of photos they will take the next week.
The following Thursday and Friday will be the photography days. Alex Grabiec will arrive at the schools with 10 to 11 volunteers to go outside and help the children take photos and recap on the subjects of their photos.
The final critique takes place on the third week and allows students to discover different ways to critique each other’s photos. Two to three volunteers are typically present for this event.
“We really encourage all of the students to get up and talk about their artwork and take questions and to really have a conversation about what they saw and why it was important,” Alex Grabiec said. The program continues in this threeweek cycle throughout the year until the students need to prepare for their Standards of Learning (SOL) tests in the spring.
Alex Grabiec added that there is also a final exhibition and closing reception, complete with Chips Ahoy cookies and Capri Sun juice pouches, where the fourth graders can show off their work and take a framed photo home.
“Your art’s on the wall, and you have to stand by it and you have to say why you took it,” Alex Grabiec said. “And they’re so good at it!”
“What each student and artist gets out of it is hopefully … they keep taking pictures the rest of their life… hopefully the connections that we make in the classroom spread to other disciplines too,” Alex Grabiec added, meaning subjects such as English, science and math.
Overall, Emily Grabiec believes the program gives children the benefit of “having the opportunity to learn to express themselves positively through artwork and feel like they have a voice to share their ideas and connect with other students in a way that they normally may not get to in the classroom.”
Amanda Haymans, LCVA school programs educator, said that “each child will benefit a little differently, but overall they all benefit in some way because it’s all … positive reinforcement.”
Regarding how students can benefit from the program individually, Haymans gave the examples of, “If one kid is just having trouble talking to other people, he may by the end of the year, be able to benefit and talk to more people.
If one child has a problem not being able to articulate his feelings, maybe by the end he will be able to find a different way to articulate those feelings.”
Grace Pilk, LCVA assistant educator, pointed out that the program is beneficial not only for the ART Kids, but for the program volunteers as well. She said the volunteers are able to serve as mentors to the children.
“That way [the volunteers] get to be, not necessarily a role model, but say, ‘I’ve been in fourth grade too, I’ve done stuff, and I can help you figure out what’s going on.’”
Pilk said interested volunteers, who can be not only Longwood University students but anyone from the community, can email her at pilkgb@longwood.edu or call her at 434-395-2697. These individuals can then sign up for volunteer times in the LCVA’s Volgistics database.
According to Haymans, individuals can volunteer throughout the year but must sign up for a time by Wednesday each week so the schools know how many volunteers to expect.
PECES sessions are from 8-8:45 a.m. on Thursdays and CCES sessions are from 8:20-9:05 a.m. on Fridays.
Ultimately, Alex Grabiec said, “The students make great work, and they’re good at it. And so I think, as we go forward … hopefully they keep making and making and making, and it gets better and better and better.”
