Teaching kids the tools of the trade doesn’t always mean picking up a paintbrush or pencil, according to one artist.

Michele Beschen, host of the PBS show “Be Organic,” believes students can use ordinary household items to create beautiful works of art. She put her theory to test recently at Terrace Elementary School in Ankeny, Iowa.    

With Beschen’s encouragement, students painted with a plunger as a brush and used an old door as a canvas. And if no paint was available? Beschen said they could have used old makeup or nail polish.

“[This] frees their mind and opens it to endless possibilities,” Beschen told the Des Moines Register. “This teaches them how to be resourceful and think differently.”

To read the original post and find out other substitutes for canvas, click on the link to the original story posted below.

No art supplies? Terrace students learn to improvise

“As a product of the public school system, I believe the availability of art education, and the tools necessary to keep up with the technologically advanced direction art is taking these days, needs to be recognized as a serious problem plaguing our public school system.

Chicago was a city built and designed by artists; it was a city that piloted the art education movement with the establishment of the Art Institute as the Academy of Fine Arts in 1879, so why is this very avant-garde location letting the availability of art to its public schools fall behind in comparison to the rest of the country?

Studies have shown an art-infused education leads to better standardized test scores. Also, according to a study by the National Center of Education Statistics, 90 percent of schools nationwide offer visual arts programs, whereas Illinois stands at only 63 percent.

Art assimilation in the classroom teaches children and young adults to build relationships with others while collaborating on a project. As you can see, with the right tools and resources we can help educate and guide the next Daniel Burnham or Frank Lloyd Wright.”