Sub-grants were awarded to six educator teams in central Indiana during the summer of 1999. Twelve teachers became part of a national pilot program to integrate art into a regular classroom using a digital database as one resource. The second goal of this grant was to develop lesson plans to integrate art into each school corporation's existing curriculum. What follows are just a few examples of units of study and lessons that were implemented in a third grade classroom at Brown Elementary School in Brownsburg, Indiana.
Art is the great equalizer.
The at-risk student label given many children can be discarded and replaced with an artist's palette, symbolizing a color wheel of possibilities. As the school year begins, each child's canvas is blank, the slate has been wiped clean, and the chance for new beginnings is just a brush stroke away. The classroom studio has specifically been created as a safe place where creative expression, tolerance, and the celebration of the individual spirit are recognized and encouraged. To begin, we introduce the artists Rembrandt and Rockwell in the media center, focusing on their self-portraits. The artistic transformation has begun.