“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up” – Pablo Picasso

Founded in 1996, Americans for the Arts has spent twenty years advocating for the creation of environments where arts and arts education thrive. In 2010, Congress helped bolster their campaign by designating “the week beginning with the second Sunday in September as National Arts in Education Week.” Starting September 11 and running through September 17, 2016, “the field of arts education and its supporters join together in communities across the country to tell the story of the transformative power of the arts in education.”

Walton Arts Center (WAC) has long been a supporter of the role of arts in education. In addition to impacting over 32,000 children through the Colgate Classroom Series, WAC also provides in-school support for teachers who encourage the inclusion of arts across their curriculums. These SmART Teacher Residencies provide more than 60 contact hours of arts integration instruction and 75 hours of in-school arts integration role-modeling. We are honored to partner with the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Trike Theatre of Bentonville, AR - both of which provide the teaching artists who work with, train and guide our local Arkansas teachers.

This past Tuesday, WAC hosted an orientation for our SmART teachers, providing them with classroom series information and professional development credit for the 2016-17 Season. Our teachers were given the chance to relax and unleash their own creativity with a hands-on clay making activity led by our partner organization, Community Creative Center (CCC). Instructed by a CCC artists, our teachers (and their children!) coiled, sculpted and stretched their clay trivets to life.

Walton Arts Center is always excited to encourage the creativity of Northwest Arkansas children and to inspire our community teachers to pursue their own artistic passions when National Arts in Education week rolls around each year. And this year was no exception!