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news
Students blend
art, education
By Kimberly Clements
Special to the On-line Forty-Niner
Todd Smith and
Carrie Cason are two talented young minds working together
to teach young children. Smith and Cason are both art students
at CSULB, and passionate about the work that they do.
Todd Smith, a 35-year-old
graduate student, is majoring in printmaking. In the future
Smith would like to continue with his passion for art and
teaching, by teaching art to children in the grades kindergarten
through eighth grade.
Smith clearly has
the experience to do so. Currently, Smith is teaching art
at the Los Angeles Music center to kindergarten to eighth
graders, as well as the Los Angeles County High School Arts,
as well as his recent project with the ArtsBridge program
at CSULB.
ArtsBridge partners
with public schools to provide quality education to kindergarten
through eighth grade students. University students receive
scholarships to participate.
Recently married,
Cason is diligently working alongside Smith with this program.
Cason, also a graduate student majoring in art education,
has a long history of teaching art as well. Although she would
like to teach art to high school students in the future, she
has found interest in teaching in many different age groups.
A few of her most
recent are at the Orange County museum of the Arts, and her
onsite teaching for Artists Reaching Children and the ArtsBridge
program at CSULB.
The ArtsBridge
program is funded by the art education outreach program, in
response to the growing need for arts education instruction
in public schools. The ArtsBridge program has reached more
than 213,922 public school children in 267 schools across
the state.
Smith and Cason
were informed about the program from Carlos Siliera, and were
chosen from the interview process conducted at the University
Art Museum.
In conjunction
these two leaders have worked on their latest project for
the ArtsBridge program. The program allotted 12 to 16 sessions
over an eight-week period for the two teachers to educate
and work hands-on with third grade students at Minnie Gant
Elementary in Long Beach.
The students worked
to develop an art exhibit in conjunction with the current
art exhibit at the University Art Museum entitled "By
Hand: Pattern, Precision, and Repetition, in Contemporary
Art."
Over the eight-week
period Smith and Cason worked on several different projects
with their students. The teachers designed lesson plans based
on the museum exhibit and implemented them in to the classroom
to loosely develop a project that related to the exhibit.
The projects, on
display in the design gallery, are patterns inspired by students'
daily habits, such as eating, drinking, sleeping and watching
TV. The exhibit is open until Thursday.
Smith and Cason
are very proud of the work that their students have done.
Art and teaching are two of the things that they enjoy, and
they are doing it for a good cause.
"I like helping
in the community, and this is a valid and good program to
work for", said Cason about the ArtsBridge Program.
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