Foundation brings art to Smithville students Sign up for free newsletters to get more of the Statesman delivered to your inbox.
A class of kindergartners at Brown Primary School focused intently as they stroked bright colors onto a white canvas recently, paint-speckled aprons tied around their waists.
Cammy Snyder of Lost Pines Artisans Alliance stood at the front of the room and talked to the children about primary colors, vanishing points and perspective.
The activity is a part of the nonprofit Smithville Education Foundation’s “Enrichment Days,” when instead of hiring substitutes for teacher training days, the foundation brings in artists from the alliance to teach the children about art and Playhouse Smithville to run sessions about music and theater, said Tina Smith, enrichment day coordinator for the foundation.
Kindergartners at Brown Primary School paint on real canvasses during the Smithville Education Foundation’s “Enrichment Days.”
“It’s not just arts and crafts it’s a basic knowledge of fine arts,” Smith said.
The foundation, which started in response to statewide school budget cuts in 2011, provides the art enrichment days and also offers grants for teachers in the Smithville school district for innovative teaching methods and programs, according to Smith.
Throughout the school year, the foundation puts on six different arts and theater sessions for kindergarten, first and second grade students at Brown Primary.
This year, the arts days were expanded to the elementary school, brought by Principal Tammie Hewitt who was previously assistant principal at Brown Primary. The foundation furnished art supplies for the one session the elementary students participated in, Smith said.
“This is the only exposure kids are getting to the arts until junior high,” Smith said. Donations can be sent to the foundation at: Smithville Education Foundation PO Box 227, Smithville, TX 78957.
To learn more about the foundation visit its website at http://www.smithvilleeducation.org/video/
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