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“Designer”
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    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
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