Teachers at Rush Creek Elementary have been making do with smaller budgets for art classes, but one local mom knew she could help.
A couple of years ago, Cindy McGowan, educational director at Maple Grove Arts Center, asked her son Blake what he learned in school one day. He responded by showing her a printed image of an alligator. “Then he said, ‘It’s about texture,’” remembers McGowan. Seeing the flat image, she says, “My heart just sank.”
After a meeting with Rush Creek principal Don Johnson in February 2009, McGowan pitched her idea to teach art classes—for free. Why? “I do it,” she says, “because it’s a need.” McGowan says Rush Creek teachers already have difficult jobs, so, “If I can make it easier for [teachers], I’m tickled pink and happy as a clam!”
With McGowan’s background as a professional pastel artist, and her role to create classes at the arts center, Johnson says her “enthusiasm for art brings art appreciation to life for many of our students … It is great to have volunteers who can bring these extras to our students.”
McGowan strives to make class fun, bringing wigs to wear and talking in funny voices to get the students laughing. Between slideshow presentations and games, she says students “don’t even realize that they’re learning art history.” McGowan introduces new vocabulary to students, brings resources and ideas that they didn’t have and challenges students to draw outside their comfort level, so they’re left amazed at what they’re capable of.
In her third year as a volunteer art teacher, McGowan has brought professional art materials for students to use, but that’s becoming more difficult without outside funds or sponsors such as local businesses. She says, “I really am looking for someone to donate to the art program.” McGowan is also taking the program to other schools, so contact her at 763.732.8477 or cindymcgowan@att.net for more information or to contribute.
