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“Designer”
12
ChildArt | Art for Health Sports Figures
Not many art classes happen in one of the attitudes by addressing the rising obesity
last three room schoolhouses in the county. crisis in the country. My students’ ideas
Teaching art, in the hamlet of New Suffolk, Long and creativity became part of a glob-
Island, to 13 multi-grade elementary students al exchange where they could
took on the characteristics of a “family.” Meet- see themselves sharing beyond their
ing weekly with my 3rd-6th graders, I strived to local community.
create challenging learning opportunities that
The artist-athlete ideal of the creative mind
could encourage not only artistic expression
and healthy body permitted a constructive en-
but active discussion and empathetic out-
try into self-image, lifestyle habits, and under-
comes. The 6th Arts Olympiad created by ICAF
standing that being healthy is not only a physical
offered the platform to accomplish these goals
activity, but integral to mental health, too. It was
by embracing the “artist-athlete” concept,
important for students to see the interconnect-
which connected societal reflection and healthy
edness between so-
cial wellness, art,
and sport, and con-
front the prominent
societal depiction of
the artist and athlete
as separate entities.
Society has always
had a penchant for
categories, but in
reality we need unity
and freedom to ex-
press and be our
best self.
As a class, we
talked about the
characteristics of the
artist and that of the
Caroline Fannon