Artistic expression and the appreciation of visual arts can be vitally important for the development of school-age children, but not all students have access to art appreciation education.
To remedy that, Art Goes to School of Delaware Valley brings arts instruction to nearly 165,000 elementary-school students in the region. Cherry Hill has its own chapter of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit, which has been in operation for 50 years.
The organization’s volunteers go into classes from first to fifth grade to talk about art works, artists, mediums and forms, usually in a class art period with a teacher. Artistic reproductions are part of the lessons and are provided by Arts Goes to School, which is financed by grants and utilizes poster-board recreations of paintings; drawings; photographs; murals; and scaled-down, three-dimensional sculpture replicas.
Amy Bash is the grant manager for the organization and has been one of its volunteers for several years.
“We’re kind of a traveling museum …” she explained. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for kids who may not have been exposed to art, literally, from around the world, from caveman art to modern art to local artists.”
Art Goes to School’s goal is to help children develop 10 main skills through its teaching: observation; communication and language skills; visual communication; problem solving; imagination; making connections; learning about other cultures; collaboration; curiosity; and self-awareness.
Because the program is run by volunteers, it’s free to students and school districts. Art Goes to School operates during the academic year, with the township chapter beginning its meetings around the time school begins in September, then meeting once a week through December.
Discussions at the weekly sessions involve discussing the portfolio the organization has given the chapter for that year. Each chapter member chooses an artist or artwork, researches it on their own time, then addresses how to best present the choice for various grade levels.
“They discuss how to talk about the art with the students,” Bash noted. “There’s a very big difference between a special-ed class versus first grade versus fifth grade, and their knowledge about art and what type of art they may have been working on in the classrooms, so we customize the presentations.”
Portfolios are chosen and created by an Art Goes to School formal committee and rotate between the approximately 30 chapters in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They feature a mix of various art styles and forms.
No experience or specific expertise is needed to become a volunteer educator with the nonprofit, which provides all necessary information and arranges all meeting places and classes.
“You don’t have to have an art degree,” Bash emphasized. “You don’t have to have been a teacher.”
Each instructor generally teaches about 10 classes in the academic year, with each one taking about 40 minutes.
“It’s not like you have to meet every day or every month throughout the year,” Bash offered. “Typically, we’re off when school is off as well. So it’s not a huge imposition in time. But it’s extremely rewarding.”
Bash went on to say that participation by volunteers can be a rewarding experience given the way they introduce art to students.
“The great thing about Art Goes to School,” she remarked, “is that while you can’t necessarily touch or talk out loud a lot in the museum, you can speak your heart and your mind, you can share your thoughts and you can touch the samples that we bring in.”
Volunteers also get an opportunity to socialize.
“Everyone is really nice, creative, knowledgeable and committed members of our chapter …” Bash observed. “We’re always looking to bring new people into the fold so that we can perpetuate this truly amazing benefit that the community and the school system receives.”
Anyone interested in volunteering for Art Goes to School can contact Libby DeLuca, the Cherry Hill chapter chair, at libbyd67@comcast.net.
