Eastern’s art education students are gathering their crayons and markers this week, as middle and high schoolers from Mattoon and Charleston assemble for the first day of Art Mix on Tuesday at the Tarble Art Center. 

Art Mix is an after-school program for middle and high schoolers to come and explore the Tarble Arts Exhibition, participate in art activities and meet other students that are interested in art.

The event will take place every Tuesday and Thursday in the Tarble Education Lab during the month of October from 3:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The program is hosted by six art education students, as part of their curriculum for their secondary methods art class, taught by Brad Olson, who also helped lead the class at the event.

Olson began the program three years ago, after brainstorming program ideas with Jennifer Seas, the director of Tarble.

Olson and Seas wanted to create a program that allowed Olson’s students to experience teaching while also getting more people to attend Tarble and view the exhibitions. 

He also stated that it is the students’ responsibility to prepare the lesson plans for the program, in order to prepare for their future careers. 

“That’s a big part of our work as teachers in training is to do the planning for teaching and to come up with engaging, exciting ways to connect students with the arts, like in places like museums,” Olson said.

The event on Tuesdays is designated to the middle schoolers’ class, while the high schoolers have class on Thursdays. 

Tuesday’s classes are taught by three junior art education major students, Grace McClennan, TaNea Brigham and Shelby Herboth.

The high schoolers will be led by senior art education major student Madeline Gall and junior art education major students Rachael Perino and Lindsey Zike.

McClennan said that her first day teaching at Art Mix was a great experience. 

“The kids really enjoyed the project and I believe also enjoyed our teaching,” McClennan said. “One girl named Nadia even handed me a note that says ‘You’re the best! Have a great day!’ and it almost made me cry.”

All of the art activities that the students planned are ocean themed, to coincide with Tarble’s current exhibit, “Who Speaks for the Oceans.”

On the first day, the middle schoolers were broken up into groups of three to four and participated in a collaborative craft, in which they each had to draw a river scene with a foreground, background and middleground that connected to the other students’ drawings. 

McClennan stated that the planning process of this lesson plan was not as hard as she expected, since her class is a close-knit group that all work very well together. 

She also said that Olson made the process very easy to understand.

“He is a huge help to us, and we couldn’t imagine a better professor and mentor,” McClennan said. 

On Thursday, the high schoolers will be participating in an activity inspired by Koinobori, which are Japanese windsocks in the shape of carps, to celebrate Children’s Day and represent families.

Gall described what she hopes the take-aways are from this program by stating that, “It kind of goes back to why I want to be a teacher in the first place. I’ve always looked up to the people in my life at school and I’ve always wanted to inspire people the way that I’ve been inspired through art and I really want that same reaction with these kids.” 

She hopes that their lesson plans allow the children to learn something about themselves since “art is not only about creating, it’s about understanding yourself and understanding the world around you.”

Perido had a different perspective as to what she hopes the children attending the event learn.

She said, “I just hope that it kind of opens the door for them to still do more art that’s outside the classroom and also showing them a different world because, I think back to like if I had the opportunity that they had to come to a college campus and see their art museum and do crafts, I’d be like, ‘Oh my god, this is so cool! What an awesome opportunity.’”

She hopes that after the program ends, everything the children learned and experienced will stick with them. 

According to Olson, another advantage of the program is the opportunity for kids to meet other like-minded kids.

“I remember what it was like to be an art kid in a small rural school and there weren’t many of us that were really artistic and so I think the opportunity to get together and make new friends that are also interested in art is really great,” Dr. Olson said. 

Audra Gullquist can be reached at 581-2812 or at agullquist@eiu.edu