Young artists learn to think inside the box

The mood of the third-grade students in Heather Herm's classroom at Guadalupe Schools is one of excitement. Today they get to do something special — an art project sponsored by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

Program director Megan Hallett of UMFA explains to the students that they will be doing a cardmaking project. Each student is given two pieces of paper and a piece of plastic foam. Students will draw something on their piece of plastic foam in regular pen and then run an ink roller over the top of it. After it's placed on the paper, it makes a card by leaving an engraving behind.

Hallett tells the students not to let a mistake stop them.

"The best artwork happens when you make a mistake and you get to just keep going," she said.

The printmaking project is part of the Art-in-a-Box program, an innovative hands-on art education program presented to area schools by UMFA for free. Hallett goes to the schools, does an art presentation and then allows students to complete a project. Once the project is finished, Hallett leaves the box with the supplies in the classroom so students can continue to use it.

"The idea behind which project I pick are projects that most students haven't done before and, unless they've seen it done, they wouldn't do it," she said. "It exposes them to a project that lends itself to the classroom."

LaVelle Conner, an assistant third-grade teacher at Guadalupe Schools, enjoyed the project's creativity.

"I think the most enjoyable thing (about this project) is you get to create something so cool and so easy. It was fun," she said.

Students in Herm's classroom enjoyed the project, too. Carlos Avila, 9, made a print of him and his dad in a park with fireworks for Father's Day.

"What I like about (this project) is it's all hardened and you can feel it," he said of the plastic foam print.

Classmate Sabrina Caceres, 9, liked inking the print of her fishing with her dad.

"I like the part where we get dirty — it's fun," she said.

Friends Ruby Ponce, 9, Veronica Rosaila, 9, and Cicilia Velarde, 9, said art is already their favorite subject, and they enjoy the creative aspect of it.

"We enjoy creating things, things that we imagine in our mind," Veronica said.

"I like imagining things I could probably do and have fun with," Ruby said. "It's fun doing art because you can draw something and imagine it's alive and play pretend with it."

Funding for the program comes from a partnership with the State Office of Education. UMFA's goal in administering the program is to help increase arts education in the schools.