Children Enjoy Catoosa Art Camp
By Beverly Carroll, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
Jun. 21–RINGGOLD, Ga.– For rising fifth-grader Melayne Daniel, the week-long visual arts camp she attended was fun on many levels.
“I liked making the kites and using all the different paints,” said Melayne, 10, as she and her mom, Deanne Daniel, packed the family SUV with her art work Friday. “And meeting new friends was fun.”
Melayne was one of about 50 Catoosa County students who attended one of the two camp sessions at the Kellerhals Art Center, in the former city library building on the Ringgold High School campus.
The center opened last year under the direction of Dr. Larry Bunch, who oversees its use for public school students, community members and continuing education for teachers.
“Dr. Bunch is wonderful,” said Mrs. Daniel, a Catoosa County second grade teacher. “He did a science lesson with my class based on Georgia curriculum standards. It was on life cycles of animals, and he used bats.”
The camp curriculum was designed for students from ages six to 11 years, Dr. Bunch said. Activities were divided into drawing, painting and sculpting.
“I tried to come up with activities that offered lots of opportunities in each area,” he said. “In painting, we used water colors and tempera paints. In drawing we used pastels and pencils.”
Dr. Bunch said his goal was to use visual arts to reinforce what children learn in school and develop their creativity and critical thinking skills.
“Art is as basic as any of the three Rs,” Dr. Bunch said. “Art places us in time and context. It’s history and geography. We are constantly bombarded about how poor Americans are in geography. Art is a great vehicle for that. We went around the world, studying artists from Russia, Japan, France, America, ancient Greeks and Romans and others.”
A wide variety of experiences were packed into a week, art teacher Sher Kenaston said. “They loved getting to do those things,” she said. “They learned to use paint, not just put it on the paper but how to make it do what they wanted it to do.”
Several of the volunteers who helped out were former students of Dr. Bunch, either at Ringgold High or his graduate classes at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
“Imagine a world without art,” said Anthony Alemany, a 2004 Ringgold High graduate. “Math and science go hand in hand with art. If you can’t represent those sciences visually, no one could understand them.”
It is a vital part of education, said Kendall Thornton, who will teach art at New Hope Middle School this year.
“It teaches creativity, and it teaches how to problem solve,” Ms. Thornton said. “To take that away is sad.”
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