District 79 schools receive grant to aid in art education
Healy, Bender & Associates Inc. of Naperville awarded a 2018 art grant for $250 to Fremont School District 79. District 79's three art teachers will purchase supplies with the money.
Students at Fremont Elementary, Intermediate, and Middle schools receive a well-rounded arts education from highly-qualified teachers. Students learn about the fundamentals of 2-D and 3-D art, including ceramics, painting, studio design, sculpture, and drawing.
Students are challenged to work with both familiar and unfamiliar materials and mediums. Students also study contemporary images and art careers. Most importantly, the art curriculum encourages student artists to confront risks, make spontaneous artistic decisions, and to embrace mistakes in art. This rationale contributed to FSD79 being awarded the grant.
"Arts education is an essential element of whole child development at FSD79. We are very grateful to be awarded this grant, which will help provide supplies for student art projects," said Dr. Elizabeth Freeman, assistant superintendent of Innovative Learning, Teaching, and Technologies.
In addition to teaching art, District 79 art teachers provide venues where students might showcase their artwork. Two community art shows, one at Mundelein High School and one at Stevenson High School, share students' artwork with the community. Visitors also see student artwork throughout the school hallways.
Student expression in the arts is encouraged among the school's art teachers. Students tell a story through their many art forms. Some students take their audience on expeditions, while others share the district's prairie and woodlands with their audience.
Other students create artwork out of recycling materials in a way that defines other ways materials can be used. Some students make their audience laugh and feel other strong emotions with their works of art. While others use their art form to help their audience understand their culture or ethnicity in a way they might not be able to express verbally.
Arts education is vital to the overall academic achievement of students. The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and the AEP commissioned Critical Evidence, which indicates that schools integrating the arts into the curriculum as part of a comprehensive education reform strategy are documenting positive changes in the school environment and improved student performance.
Fremont School District 79 educates approximately 2,300 students in preschool through eighth grade and serves students from a 34-square mile area from the communities of Mundelein, Wauconda, Hawthorn Woods, Grayslake, Round Lake, Long Grove and Libertyville. District 79 students feed into Mundelein, Stevenson and Grayslake high schools.
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