A handful of people considering founding an arts academy in Athabasca’s old brick school visited the Calgary Arts Academy on Feb. 7 to learn how such an academy could run.
“I’ve seen stuff at that school that I’ve never seen before,” said Gina Martel, a local music teacher and the primary champion of the Athabasca arts academy idea. “They teach all their core subjects through different art forms.”
The visiting group consisted of Martel, Aspen View school board chair Paul Ponich and superintendent Brian LeMessurier, as well as another interested parent, Sheena Pacholok. The four spent a full school day at the Calgary Arts Academy, which is a K–9 charter school founded in 2003 with two campuses.
“Although the Calgary Arts Academy is a charter school and not necessarily a model that our board would pursue, it is one of many models that needs to be investigated,” said LeMessurier.
Charter schools are non-profit public schools that provide innovative or enhanced education programs and are autonomous from local school boards.
LeMessurier characterized the trip as “a good place to start our investigation” due to the success the Calgary Arts Academy has experienced with arts immersion.
Arts immersion, said Martel, is similar to language immersion.
“When you do arts immersion, it’s like French immersion, where everything is taught in art forms. Granted, they are different art forms for each class, depending on the child’s strengths,” she said.
Martel said the trip to Calgary has opened her eyes to the two different possibilities for fine arts education: the traditional fine arts integration model or the fine arts immersion model.
With fine arts integration, cores and other subjects would remain discrete from the fine arts classes both in terms of teaching methods and, if the brick school arts academy goes ahead, location.
“(Students) have the fine arts they can come and experience, and then they go back to their regular school programming,” Martel explained.
With fine arts immersion, a program would exist where arts are the vehicle for teaching every subject, whether at the new secondary school or at the brick school arts academy.
The Calgary Arts Academy notes that just as French immersion does not produce thousands of French professors, arts immersion is not meant to strictly produce artists.
“The goal (is) to make passive learning active, to replace rote memorization with creativity,” the academy states in literature about its origin.
“Those are two very different concepts,” said Martel of integration versus immersion, “and what I’m just trying to get a feel for now is what people are looking for.”
Martel said when the Athabascans visited a math classroom at the Calgary Arts Academy, students were learning Alberta curriculum, but through the musical concept of beats per minute.
“A DJ was there and was showing them how to manipulate music by using the fractions and all of those formulas that they use in math and applying it to the music that they listen to on the radio,” she said. “They just were so engaged. Nobody had their noses in textbooks; they all had their eyes on him as he was going through this process with them.”
Martel said in another class, students were learning phases of the moon through watercolours. She said the students were very articulate about the science behind the art activity.
In terms of the school’s design, Martel said, “They took a lot of time in making the interior look very creative.” She noted there is lots of colour on the walls, along with murals painted by the students. Classical music plays in the background all day, and decorated pianos dot the hallways.
“If they were on a break, they could come out and play the piano, which was really neat,” she said.
Martel wondered, though, how kids handled all the creative freedom.
“We asked (administrators), because there’s a lot of freedom there, how that translates as far as discipline issues, and they said they have almost no discipline issues to deal with, and they attributed that to the concept of the school,” Martel said.
“Can you imagine if we could actually take less time in the day dealing with disciplinary issues and more time in learning?”
Martel said the Calgary Arts Academy is well above the provincial average for marks in many subjects, so the evidence is there to support the academic soundness of fine arts immersion.
As for demand among parents and students, the Calgary Arts Academy recently announced it will expand to a site on the Calgary Stampede grounds and become a K–12 school.
Martel said it is up to the Aspen View school board to decide if arts immersion is a good fit for the community; she will present to the board this Thursday.
“Maybe we start with just the arts classes and move towards (immersion) as a bit of a goal,” she said. “I think a lot of people are looking for an alternate form of teaching because kids are being disengaged at school with just the textbooks and the assignments.”
Martel also acknowledged that the model at the Calgary Arts Academy doesn’t have to be strictly emulated; it simply highlights the possibilities.
She said she has been overwhelmed by support for the idea of more arts education in town. She has been inundated with phone calls and emails, some from people she has never met offering to help with the project.
“I don’t have a group of parents as such working with me, but I have had many parents come forward and say they support what I’m doing,” said Martel.
Martel said if people would like to weigh in on any aspect of the proposed arts academy or the idea of fine arts immersion, they should contact the Aspen View office.
She said at the very least, she believes people want more fine arts focus.
“The question now is: is the interest there to go that extra step to fine arts immersion?” she wondered.
“Maybe we start with just the arts classes and move towards (immersion) as a bit of a goal,” she said. “I think a lot of people are looking for an alternate form of teaching because kids are being disengaged at school with just the textbooks and the assignments.”
Martel also acknowledged that the model at the Calgary Arts Academy doesn’t have to be strictly emulated; it simply highlights the possibilities.
She said she has been overwhelmed by support for the idea of more arts education in town. She has been inundated with phone calls and emails, some from people she has never met offering to help with the project.
“I don’t have a group of parents as such working with me, but I have had many parents come forward and say they support what I’m doing,” said Martel.
Martel said if people would like to weigh in on any aspect of the proposed arts academy or the idea of fine arts immersion, they should contact the Aspen View office.
She said at the very least, she believes people want more fine arts focus.
“The question now is: is the interest there to go that extra step to fine arts immersion?” she wondered.
