For my “choose your own adventure” I’ve chosen to discuss my experiences learning fine arts in the public school district of Farmington Minnesota. Later this week I hope to upload a link to a podcast episode I’m creating with a friend but for now I will briefly introduce the topic.
For some background context, I grew up attending the public schools’ in Farmington. My Mom also grew up in Farmington and attended the schools’ her entire k-12 education too. Although, a lot of things have changed since then. Further, my earliest joys where painting in elementary school art class, and then later on finding out that two of those paintings were entered into the district’s annual spring art show. Each year I looked forward to going to the art show which was put on by all the art teacher’s in the school district. They dedicated so much of their time to choose pieces of artwork by their students to be hung up, displayed, and to be see by everyone in attendance of the show. I most enjoyed looking at the masks made by the 5th grade students at each elementary school. The art show was always such a special event, it showed a variety of art from every grade level. Truly, it was inspiring for everyone who came.
My junior year I’d taken AP studio art, we had our own private art shows. But we also helped setup the annual district art show too, and chose 2-3 of our own pieces to put in the show. It was beyond rewarding to see my elementary school and middle school art teachers again and show them what I’d worked on for my AP studio art portfolio.
The arts in my districts’ high school was always very prominent. We had a large music program, both vocal and instrumental. As well as fine arts, which was my area of involvement. We had four amazing art teacher’s that all taught a separate medium or area. So we were able to learn a variety of mediums, from drawing, ceramics, sculpture, to graphic design and print making. Learning the variety of techniques in art allowed me to develop an interest in 2D multimedia art.
Lastly, you can expect a link to a podcast episode soon. I will be chatting with best friend Anna who came to Farmington in middle school. She was very involved in Farmington’s instrumental music programs. I plan on leading our conversation with a number of questions about her experiences with learning music at Farmington, and touching on her personal connection to music too. I hope you all look forward to the podcast episode!
Finally, here is the link to the podcast episode: https://anchor.fm/liv-elizabeth0/episodes/Thoughts-on-Music–Fine-Arts–and-Democracy-a-Conversation-with-Anna-ertfes 