Art Appreciation

A BIG thank you to our PTA! They paid for our entire school to visit Amon Carter Art Museum in Fort Worth! Emily and the 3rd graders (red shirts) went two weeks ago, and Meg and the 1st graders (purple shirts) went last week. It was a great field trip! The kids were so well behaved and the docents did a fabulous job asking questions to help them understand the pieces they were looking at. We toured the works of art inside, then got to enjoy the many sculptures outside on the museum's grounds. Mr. Vanderveer, their art teacher, even went with them. He did a great job of preparing them by showing the kids some of the artwork that they should look for there. They would get so excited when they would spot one that they had studied in class! Once outside, the children were given digital cameras to take photos of the sculptures and make their own art! I could not believe that our teachers handed out cameras to the kids...especially the 1st graders...but they did, and the kids LOVED it! Their favorite work of art, by far, was "The Vortex"...a towering rusting metal sculpture that was hollow on the inside. The children all loved going inside it and hearing the fun echoes it made! A close second, was seeing Papa's Bronco Billy on display in a museum! That's not it's real name, of course--I forget what Frederic Remington called his masterpiece--but that's what we have always called the one that Papa has at his house in Tennessee! The girls are already asking if we can go back together as a family! Yay! I heart art!! I'm so happy they are developing a love for it as well.