Take A Journey Through Art - A reflection

Take A Journey through Art 

Utah Youth Art Month Flag for 2020
Designed by Callie Sweeten, a senior
at Timpanogos High School

"Take a Journey through Art"  was our YAM theme for 2020.  We held a flag contest and chose our winners.  This beautiful flag invites you to come to Utah... to share your journey through art.

I went to the UAEA conference and put up this beautiful flag for everyone to enjoy.

Then I taped a large piece of butcher paper up on the wall.
I got out a box of tempera color sticks donated by Sargent Art and I invited teachers to create a mural of our collective journey.

"What is your journey through art?  Can you express it on our mural?"

I did my own quick little sketch in the corner, but I didn't allow myself to engage emotionally.  That is a safe thing right?

As I watched the teachers come by and I started talking to them I started to get a glimpse of the journey of each of them.  My journey. Our journey.



As teachers drew on our mural, they shared their stories with me.  Themes started to emerge.   "Art saves lives, art is life, art allows me to have a voice, art holds me up, art brings people together,  the earth without eh is ART."  Teachers drew pictures of their first art teacher, flowers, sunshine, teaching methods, stories, glimpses of their lives.  They illustrated quotes and inspirational sayings.  I got emotionally involved.  I carefully took down the mural and moved it to the main hall of the conference.  Then again, I took it down and put it up at the high school where I teach.

I asked my students to look at the mural and share their own journey in their sketchbooks.  I thought back to my own personal journey through art.

Two weeks later our schools were closed.  Do you know what I learned over the coming months?  I learned that art really DOES save lives.  I came to school and I would see the mural.  I started taking close up photos of the different sections.  It inspired me and it helped me.  It helped my students and it helped those around me.

I have realized that art really does connect us.  It isn't about our differences and our politics.  It is about being there for each other and finding the creative process within ourselves, feeling safe, and feeling accepted.

My amazing friend and colleague Heather.  The art above the
mural was created by her elementary art students in the
Duchesne County School district.

Share your Journey.  Share your story.  It makes a difference. It makes a difference to you and to those around you.

New YAM theme for 2021

The new Utah Youth Art Month (YAM) theme for 2021 will be:    "Art Connects Us."


As a heads up for interested teachers,  we usually complete the YAM flag contest on December 15th but I am going to try to move everything up to the end of October this year.   I have been talking to a lot of teachers and it seems like it might be easier to promote the contest before it starts competing with the holidays and end of the semester grading. It should make judging easier for us.   If you get this note or check out my blog, start thinking about how you can participate in the flag contest this year.  The theme is pretty appropriate for what is going on in the world right now and we are excited to see some of the great flag entries for Utah!

Theme for Utah Youth Art Month 2019-2020

One of my adventures is promoting art education in Utah!   We have a great theme for 2019-2020.  The flag contest entries based on this theme will be due on December 15, 2019.  I will post entry forms as soon as they are available.  Please check the UAEA art education website . http://uaeaarted.org/  for more information.

Utah Yam Flag Winner 2018-2019

Youth Art Month was a great success in Utah this year. We had so many great entries for our flag contest!  The YAM flag winner was Jasmine Felt from Juab High School. Sargent Art awarded her a check for $1000 and an assortment of art supplies.

Utah YAM 2017-2018, Moving to a new school.

Garland Munn from Juab High School was the
Utah Youth Art Month Flag winner for 2017-2018.

I like blogging.  It feels like a quiet way to talk to the world and no one really notices except the people who are most important.  I am working late tonight trying to finalize the Utah YAM (Youth Art Month) report for 2017-2018.   Things have been a bit crazy for me this year.  My father was ill most of the year and he passed away in March, just when I was trying to pull things together for our Youth Art Month celebration.  We ended up postponing our art show until May.

I knew we were moving to a new high school in May, but I did an art show anyway and then I had to move out of my art room while I was still trying to teach and finish up the year.

I didn't know if I could possibly make the move and I spent many days during the last to weeks going back to the school at night and working until 1 or 2 in the morning trying to box everything up.   I had so much stuff in that tiny room!  The science teacher down the hall had pity on me and stayed after one day to help me.  We had all the materials, tools and supplies for stained glass, jewelry making, art journaling, drawing and painting.  I had been trying to organize each box as I packed.  He just started putting stuff in boxes as quick as he could.  I think it was a good thing.  I let go of my perfectionism and things really started moving more quickly.

There was a melancholy feeling in the air when I looked back at the empty room.  The projector was gone.  Everything was gone.  This room had become more and more crowded as I started with 3 preps and then added 3 more.  6 different classes with lots of supplies.  Now that it was empty it made me almost want to move back in without so much stuff.

Looking back towards the window.
The soldering stations were actually very efficient.

The projector was a bit awkward to use with a pull down screen.

Peel and stick tiles are a quick way to transform an ugly counter.

The wall behind the sink was really bad so we started
tiling it with abandoned mosaics.  I will miss this artwork.

There were so many good memories in this room.  I remember the first day I came to work it was piled with mounds of broken glass and tons of paperwork.  I was excited to teach stained glass but I wasn't quite sure how to organize everything.  I spent three days going through things. Lauren sorted the glass and Morgan tried to fix all the grinders.  The counters were green and stained. I tried to make it better by covering the counters with peel and stick tiles.  They lasted 5 years and they still look good.

Looking at the empty room made me wonder... so I went back a few years ago and tried to find some pics of the first day of school.  This was the year I painted the tables deep blue.  It was a warm and friendly room.  When we added all the students it got pretty crowded, but we had fun making art together.  I am grateful for the time I spent here.

First day of school...before the students arrived.

This is a lesson on how to fit a lot of stuff in a very tiny room.

My still life shelves.... before they got too crowded.

Closing the door on room #13.

And so the door closes on lots of memories and good times.  Even though I will miss my old room, I am excited to move on to a new adventure.  The new school will be wonderful.  The principal sent us an email and said we could start moving in tomorrow.

Youth Art Month

Wow!  I haven't been on my blog in a log time.  I came back to look for a lesson and I had a few nostalgic moments looking at some of my old students and sweet elementary art projects!  I want to start sharing again.

March is YOUTH ART MONTH!  I have been having a wonderful month with my students of all ages celebrating art and embracing the artist in all of us.  Our festivities actually started months ago as I prepared my classes for the Utah YAM flag contest.   This is sort of a big deal for me because I am in charge of YAM in Utah.  For the past several years I held this cool contest but I always made my own students help me judge it or be innocent bystanders.  I thought it might be a bit awkward for me if one of my students actually won the contest so I think avoided that scenario.

This year, however, I decided that I wanted my students fully involved in the contest.  I asked my students to prepare entries... and I got different judges!  I was so proud when one of my amazing art students won the contest! The theme for the YAM flag contest this year  was United Through Art.  This winning entry was turned into a flag representing the state of Utah and was flown at the NAEA YAM museum in NYC a few weeks ago.

Quentin Drake - 2017 Utah YAM Flag Winner

As a continuation of the fun, March 20-24 was ART WEEK at Union High School.  We had fun activities planned each day at lunch in the commons.  Monday was Zentangle Day. Tuesday we took photos with with Mona Lisa.  Wednesday was a "Quick Draw" contest.  Thursday was sticky note art day and on Friday we had a contest for a fun school art slogan.  We also put as much art on display as we could.  This was an our informal art show and we had a lot of fun creating a few meaningful displays using ideas from the new Utah Art Core Standards!

I will try to come back and add a few pictures of the show and our activities.  It has been too long since I have blogged and I have a lot of fun things to share.

Expansion of BTS/ALP!

There has been a lot of excitement in our district this year as the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts learning program was expanded to every school in our small rural county.  I have had the opportunity to coordinate this program and provide support to the new teachers.  We offer a lot of thanks to the Utah State Legislature for funding this program to benefit the children in Utah.  As I visit with the teachers I will try to share more lesson ideas for elementary as well as high school classes!

We welcome our Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program Teachers:

Tyler Spunaugle - Altamont Elementary and Tabiona School
Ginger Chamberlain - Centennial and East Elementary
Carla McGee - Neola Elementary
Sandy Wilde - Duchesne Elementary and Tabiona School
Sophia Su - Conamore School, Kings Peak and Myton Elementary.
Elizabeth Sampson -  BYU Professional Development Partner for BTS/ALP.

Thank you for your support!  Photos will follow shortly.