ART HERITAGE TRAINING SCHEDULE
Schools in the “Tuesday Group” of schools include: Dos Rios, Thunder
Mountain, Chatfield, Taylor, Chipeta, Rocky Mountain, Mesa Valley
Community and Nisley Elementary Schools.
Training sessions are held at the D51-BTK
Building, 596 N. Westgate Dr. (near B & H
Sports on Patterson and 25 Road)
What is the Art Heritage Program? The Art Heritage Program has been a valued part of Mesa County Valley School District 51
elementary schools for more than 25 years. Volunteers bring standards-based art history and art lessons to elementary school
classrooms throughout the Mesa County area. The program is coordinated through the D51 Schools Visual Arts office at the BTK
Building, 596 N. Westgate Dr. Grand Junction, CO 81505 (970.254.5489)
Website: https://community.d51schools.org/sites/shared/art/Pages/default.aspx
What happens at an Art Heritage “training”? Information about the featured artist or cultural art lesson is provided. Volunteers
view a PowerPoint or DVD presentation about the artist and have the opportunity to ask questions or share observations. A
suggested art project is demonstrated and volunteers create a sample. The art project is inspired by the featured art lesson.
Volunteers may choose to do the same lesson or an alternate.
Are the art supplies provided for the lessons? Each school will receive a loaner box of supplies for the ‘suggested art project’. The
school-based coordinator will bring the box back to the school. If a volunteer choses to do an alternative lesson, the materials are
not provided. When all the classrooms have received the lesson, the box of supplies is returned to the BTK-Art Heritage site.
How is Art Heritage funded? The program is funded through D51 Budget which provides the salaries for a part-time coordinator and
assistant coordinator. A budget for art supplies and materials is included. In addition, generous donations from local charitable
organizations, private donors, and businesses help us to ensure student access to quality materials and updated art methods.
How and why are featured artists chosen? Artist and cultural art lessons are chosen based upon their contributions to the world of
art. Some are well-known master artists, such as Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet. Others are regionally known, such as Tony
Ortega – a pastel artist and children’s book illustrator. In addition, we often present a cultural art lesson such as rock art of the
southwest. We strive to find a balance in the variety of art lessons we teach, from painters to sculptors to fiber artists.
Tuesday, Sept. 13th, 9:30-11am
Georges Seurat “Dot-Dot” Paintings
Seurat was a French Impressionist painter who invented a special style of painting called
Pointillism. Seurat painted pictures using tiny dots of paint color instead of regular brush
strokes and solid areas of color. He made different shades of color by painting dots of pure
colors close to each other. In this way, he created green by mixing blue and yellow dots.
Browns and golds were made with tiny dots of red, blue and orange. Students will create
their own Pointillism paintings using markers.
Tuesday, Oct. 25th, 9:30-11am Vincent van Gogh
“Starry Night” Paintings
Van Gogh was not well known during his lifetime, but today he is one of the most famous
painters of all time. He only lived a short time but painted approximately 800 pictures.
Although he was very ill during the final years of his young life, his last paintings are said to be
his best. He is known for his contrasting colors and his impasto style—filled with hatch strokes
and rolling, pulsing motions of his paintbrush. Van Gogh would stroke his paint on the canvas
with a knife of brush – the paint strokes forming marks with textures.
Tuesday, Jan. 10th, 9:30-11am Henri Matisse Drawing with Scissors
Matisse, a French artist who made bright, joyful paper collages in simple shapes, became
famous as the leader of a new style of art called Post Impressionism which featured a new way
to paint and express feelings. Because these strange shapes and bright colors were shocking,
the style was called “fauvism” which means “wild beast” in French, because the new PostImpressionist art was so wild and expressive.
Tuesday, Feb. 7th, 9:30-11am Alexander Calder
Standing Mobile and wire line sculptures
Calder was an American sculptor who first trained as a design engineer, not as a sculptor. Calder is
most famous for originating the sculpture technique called “mobile” or art that moves. Calder’s
mobiles were sometimes several feet long from one end to the other and were carefully balanced
constructions of metal plates, wires, and rods which are moved by the air or by the help of a gentle
push of the hand. The movement makes them a continually moving and changing design.
Tuesday, Mar 7th, 9:30-11am
M.C. Escher Tessellations
M. C. Escher grew up in Holland in the early years of the 20 th Century. He studied art and traveled
through Europe as a young man. During his travels, he discovered that he especially liked the geometric
designs made by Moorish artists in Spain and northern Africa. Escher was a genius at creating
tessellations. A tessellation is a special kind of design made from shapes that fit together perfectly. A
checkerboard is a simple tessellation made of squares. Other shapes can make a tessellation too.
Some triangles, rectangles, and diamonds fit together perfectly.
Tuesday, Apr. 11th, 9:30-11am
Dale Chihuly
“Glass” sculptures
Chihuly became interested in glass as a child, but it wasn’t until he took a weaving class in the
early 1960’s that he began his artistic use of it. He started weaving small pieces of glass into
tapestries. One night, a few years later, he melted some glass in a little oven and blew a
bubble—in the way glassblowers work. As soon as he blew the bubble, he decided he wanted
to be a glass blower. He works with a team to create gigantic, amazing glass sculptures viewed
all over the world. Chihuly says he has never seen a color he didn’t like. He tells young artists
to: “Surround yourself with artists and see as much art as possible. Go with your gut and
create something that nobody has ever seen before.”