By Michele Haney
Cascade Middle School students have been busy these last few months! They’ve been watercoloring, using calligraphy, making drawings, and adding to their new school mural.
The year began with the mural, designed in collaboration between Cascade ArtCore teaching artist, Michele Haney, and local muralist, Bayne Gardner, with support from Imagination International.
The mural, which can be seen in the photo below, depicts the school mascot, a cougar, the Willamette Valley, and mountains in the background.
All Cascade students wrote about their vision for their futures, and ten students per grade level were chosen for their insightful and creative responses. Haney encouraged students to use pieces of their responses, sentiments such as "you can succeed, no exceptions" and "be remembered," in their mural designs. Each of the 30 students worked with Haney to add original quotes and ideas to the mural. There is still plenty of space to fill as the years roll on.
In addition to work on the school mural, Haney has been collaborating with teachers to integrate more art into core subject areas. In Social Studies, Haney and teacher Allan Pinkerton transformed each class of 8th graders into a news team, writing and designing the front page of a Revolutionary Era newspaper. Using carbon paper and calligraphy pens, students wrote articles, drew images and designed the layout of their newspapers in groups.
After her work with Pinkerton, Haney moved to math to collaborate with teacher Amber Jackson. Just before students left for holiday break, they enhanced their understanding of mathematical proportions and scaling through studying facial anatomy. Students first drew a generic, proportional face, and then brought in their own photos to scale up and put their skills to use. Students spent three days working diligently and produced accurate, impressive drawings.
Stay tuned to hear more about art integration at Cascade!