Okanogan Region Arts Education Partnership

Logo by Cassy Marchbank

Overview:

Methow Arts’ Okanogan Region Arts Education Partnership serves the Omak (including Paschal Sherman Indian School), Okanogan, Brewster, Pateros, and Methow school districts; spanning a 100 mile radius, two river valleys, and serving more than 5,000 students and 350 teachers.

Through arts education programming, Methow Arts seeks to increase access to arts education for students in rural Okanogan County who otherwise have little to access to the arts in their schools, as well as maintain the arts as central to education, and teach esssential skills in the arts (EALR's) as outlined by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The Okanogan Regional Artists Roster serves as the main resource for classroom teachers seeking artists to teach in their classrooms. The roster is a list of qualified literary, visual and performing artists selected to teach in the program.  Artists living in the Okanogan region apply to be included in the roster.

Teachers may also select artists from the Washington State Arts Commission Artists Roster for short term residencies. Teachers select an artist and then submit a Dreams proposal for funding to Methow Arts.  Artists & teachers then collaborate to complete a Planning Worksheet (forms available below). When residencies are completed, teachers submit student and teacher evaluations, and are encouraged to share student work with the community through public art, performances and publications.

Finally, student artwork is shared with the community through exhibits in school hallways, libraries and cafeterias.  Some residencies also focus on the development of public art for permanent display.  Projects have included stained glass window installations, glass mosaics for the Winthrop Post Office and regional schools, framed paintings for a local hospital, and the completion of a clay relief mural on the Methow Valley Community Trail.

Residency Procedure:

(forms available below)

• Residency Dreams              

  Drop us an email letting us know what you have in mind and get the go-ahead for planning.  

• Residency Planning Worksheet

  Teacher and artist collaborate to hammer out learning goals and logistics.       

•  Artist Contract

  Methow Arts will issue an artist contract that must be signed before the start of each residency.

•  Info to parents and press

  Inform parents about the project (sample note below) and we will send out a press release as appropriate.

•  Residency       

  Document student learning through photographs and written assessments.  Let us know how the project went from the teacher’s and artist’s perspective.

• Send Assessments to Methow Arts    

  Please send student and teacher assessments, thank-you notes and photographs.

•  Payment

  Once evaluations are received, Methow Arts will pay the artist and reimburse final material bills.

Links:

Photos

• View classroom residencies on Facebook
  • 4th grade clay bowls
  • 1st-2nd grade papier mache
  • 7th grade bookmaking
  • 11th grade "artist as chemist"
• View classroom residencies on Picassa
  • 4th grade clay bowls
  • 1st-2nd grade papier mache
  • 7th grade bookmaking
  • 11th grade "artist as chemist"
• Okanogan Regional Artists Roster
• WA State Arts Commission Artists Roster

Planning Forms :

Residency Planning Worksheet

Evaluation Forms :

For Teachers

For Students

For Artists

Sample note to parents

• Apply to be a teaching artist

 

Omak Elementary School students perform "Wings" wearing

bug costumes of their own creation during a residency with artist Kathleen Smith.

For more information contact us:

artseducation@methowartsalliance.org

509.997.4004