The goal of this year’s theme, Sense of Place, was to connect students to a particular environment or geographic location, engage their visual and tactile senses, evoke memory, imagine new possibilities, explore personal connection to Sonoma, and challenge students to make and document an important discovery of their own. Artistic concepts and projects explored included: space planning, space visualization, perspective, proportion & scale, 2-d and 3-d designs in response to specific people/places/uses, real & imagined.
Initiated in 2000, Art Rewards the Student (A.R.T.S.) is the Museum’s longest-running education program that places professional teaching artists in 4th- and 5th-grade classrooms throughout Sonoma Valley at no cost to the schools. Activities and current SVMA exhibition themes are integrated with the public school curriculum and the California Visual and Performing Arts Framework. Site + Senses: The Architecture of Aidlin Darling Design provided the primary inspiration for this year’s progjects.
A.R.T.S. 2014 is funded by grants from the Sonoma Plein Air Foundation, plus additional support from Rosemary and Kevin McNeely and Megan and Paul Segre, as well as contributions from SVMA members and friends.