OHIO COUNTY 4TH GRADERS CONNECT ART & NATURE THROUGH ECOART

WHEELING, W.Va. (March 9, 2009) - -Fourth grade students in Ohio County recently participated in “EcoArt: The Living Tree,” a project conducted by educators from Oglebay Institute’s Schrader Environmental Education Center and Stifel Fine Arts Center.

Designed to enhance West Virginia Content Standards for science and art, the collaborative project illustrated the intersection of art and nature and included the construction of a mural of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Olive Trees” as well as a tree made entirely from recycled paper, which came directly from each elementary school.

“The goal of the program was to illustrate the value of our natural resources from a variety of perspectives,” Schrader Center Director Eriks Janelsins explained. “Students learned how important trees are to our environment and how they have served as inspiration for some of civilization’s greatest works of art. They also learned how conserving our natural resources is also key to keeping the natural areas that serve to inspire us all.”

Preparation for the environmental education portion began weeks in advance with students collecting an entire day’s paper waste at their school. Schrader staff members collected the paper and turned it into a tree to be displayed in the school and made new paper from which students constructed their own leaves to display on the tree.

During the in-school portion, students learned about the types of trees found in our area, the history of paper making and watched a demonstration of the process used to make recycled paper.

“Students learned a lot about resources,” Janelsins said. “The trees will remain on display as a reminder of the amount of paper each classroom uses in a day and how things we normally throw away can be transformed into new items, even original art.”

In addition to the recycled tree project, students created a mural of Van Gogh’s “Olive Trees” during the visual arts portion of the program in which they were introduced to the Post-Impressionism time period in art and viewed artwork from Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Georges Seurat.

“This program is a wonderful example of how Oglebay Institute provides hands-on learning in art and nature,” Janelsins said. “One of the strengths of our organization is the ability to instruct in various disciplines. By working together, we can develop creative programs that work with many learning styles and address many of the academic content standards and objects for the classroom.”

Oglebay Institute provides educational programming in all five of its disciplines: environmental education, dance, history, theatre and visual arts. Programs supplement classroom teaching and meet curriculum guidelines. Programs are available for all age groups and can be held on-site or in a field trip setting at one of the Oglebay Institute facilities.

For more information, visit on the web at www.oionline.com/a+