Elementary school students at Indian River Academy will be forever reminded of the beauty and importance of the Indian River Lagoon thanks to a year-long arts integration project which culminated last week with the unveiling of vibrant mural painted by Vero Beach Museum of Art teaching artist Christine Thomas and fourth-graders at the school.
A collaboration between the museum and the school, the program was funded by a grant from Quail Valley Charities.
“We’ve been working all year with the kids, learning about the lagoon – the fish, manatees, turtles, water birds,” said Thomas. She pointed out that the mural also includes some fanciful aspects, such as School Principal Diane Fannin waving while soaring over the water on a parasail, towed by boat with IRA painted on its side, and the school’s art teacher, Bridget Lyons, being given the ride of a lifetime by large sea turtle.
“The kids asked, ‘Where is this place?’” said Lulu Badgley, another VBMA teaching artist, of the paradisiacal scene. “I said the clue is; what’s the name of your school? They went, ‘Ooh – Indian River Academy! It’s the Indian River Lagoon! So they’re excited about that.”
Badgley explained that she helped teachers in the classrooms with the writing and reading components, developing literacy and environmental science applications to complement the lagoon-themed mural.
“So if we were learning to draw a manatee, then in the classroom we would read an article about the manatee and maybe do other related activities,” said Badgley. “They learned about the watershed, that it’s a very unique river, about the endangered sea turtles, and that even some of the sea grasses are endangered.”
The students also created T-shirts using a student’s design. Morning Star Tee Shirts donated the screen and the children accompanied Thomas to print their own shirts. “So they learned about silk-screening, which was a really cool process for them,” said Thomas.
“It’s beyond what I thought it would be,” said Lyons. “And the whole school benefits.”
“This has all been very much focused on the Moonshot Moment, so that in addition to environmental science, we’ve also been integrating art into literacy. We adopted Indian River Academy and Fellsmere Elementary, and now we’ve started the summer institute for the teachers again,” said Lucinda Gedeon, VBMA Executive Director/CEO. The two-day professional development summit in August will teach arts integration techniques to educators.
“We’re really working with all 13 elementary schools now to try to bring this arts integration technique to all the schools,” said Gedeon. “It’s this whole Moonshot Moment under Fran Adams that has pulled this together, so that the bar is being raised at all the elementary schools in Indian River County. We’re very hopeful that (new) Superintendent Rendell will follow suit.”
