• No more giant art boards to lug around
• No more binders
• Just log in and learn
• Display the images with any projector or large screen

But we need your help! We have two weeks remaining to raise $60,000.

The great news: When you’re helping us, you’re helping the program in YOUR school… Because every dollar donated can be directed to help pay for your school’s adoption of the digital Art Docent Program. Even if you’ve bought the program in previous years!

Imagine this:

If your community knows they can support art in your school by contributing at Kickstarter.com, and they collectively contribute $699 or more, it’s yours!

What you can do:

Send home flyers, post on Twitter & Facebook and your school’s website or blog, contact your school’s parent organizations, and local media…

With a few phone calls (easier than a carwash!) you’ve got Art Docent Program!

Time is of the essence!

• The campaign ends June 5th!
• The price is going up July 1st!

Get started now…

Here’s the Kickstarter page: http://kck.st/MkBC73
Here’s a press release on our website that you can use as a starting point: http://goo.gl/Cu11

Any questions? Need assistance?

Contact us!

View the Project on Kickstarter.com

The Art Docent Program provides a sequential, interactive education in art history and artistic skills for K-6 grade children, which can be taught by volunteers called “docents”, and are led by coordinator; the “head docent”. The program is available for schools, after-school and summer programs, or any occasion where creative kids can make art.

Once the children see great works by famous artists on subjects such as “Mothers & Children”, “Pets”, or “Musicians” in various styles and periods, they can try their own hand, with age-appropriate materials and guidance.

View the Art Docent Program website at ArtDocentProgram.com

Initially developed in 1984 by art educator and author Barbara Herberholz, the Art Docent Program has been periodically updated. It has a proven track record of over 25 years in hundreds of schools using binders of training materials, and posters of famous works of art.

But the art posters were large, came in over 50 portfolio cases, cost a small fortune, and over years they took a beating in the classroom. When Barbara’s daughters, Amy Scherschligt and Heidi Grasty took over managing the program, they began modernizing it. For the last year, a beta-version of the digital program has been enthusiastically adopted by thirteen schools in California, Utah and Washington.

Read more at ArtDocentProgram.com

The digital delivery system allows any classroom with a projector and Internet access to display the artwork, and for Head Docents and Docents to access their own training materials online with any web browser. The program has been tested in 13 schools this year with four lessons per grade level.

The Kickstarter project will pay to complete the project, adding more lessons to create a full school year of lessons for all seven grade levels. In addition, more supporting materials, and improvements to the platform will be implemented so the system can handle more users. Completion of the project is scheduled for August, in time for the new school year.

Kickstarter.com includes a “Rewards” system for project backers. For ”The Art Docent Program Goes Digital!” project, the rewards include credit toward paying for the system in a school of the donor’s choice. Donations can be as little as $1, but the most common donation is $25 and the average donation over all Kickstarter projects is $70. The price for a school to use The Art Docent Program is $699 for the first year. A determined group of parents and teachers could fund The Art Docent Program in a school with only a few donors.

More about Kickstarter.com.

“We’re hoping not only to raise our minimum of $60,000, but to reach more children through the publicity Kickstarter can bring” said Amy Scherschligt, “Each school can mean thousands of children learning about, and creating art. So this may just be the biggest art project ever on Kickstarter. We think the existing fans of Kickstarter will appreciate that. But we think the biggest supporters will be parents who want The Art Docent Program for their own kids!”

“With all the teaching to the test and budget cuts we’ve seen in recent years, it’s great that some schools are tapping volunteers to continue to provide art education.” Adds Heidi Grasty. “Kids really do better in all subjects when their minds are stimulated with fun and engaging creative activities. We talk to adults who had this program as children, and its among the things they remember most about grade school. We really need to reach more children!”

Here’s what some of the people who have brought The Art Docent Program into their schools have said:

“The Art Docent Program has been in the San Juan Unified School District for over 25 years and has educated thousands of students from K-6 in art history” -Heather Taft, Art Docent Program Coordinator for San Juan Unified School District and Art Docent since 1988.

“With the new digital program, we look forward to greater opportunities to utilize the Art Docent Program in a new variety of instructional settings. The power of technology will enhance and further “bring to life” the beauty and treasure of art for students. It is with enthusiasm that I recommend this fine program to schools and districts, and look forward to its implementation throughout the Rocklin Unified School K-6 classes.” - Linda Rooney, Deputy Superintendent for Rocklin Unified School District: Rocklin, California

“The Art Docent Program replaces what has been missing in California Schools: Art. We have brought it back through this program.” - Rebecca Jeffries, Art Docent Program Coordinator The Roseville City School District

For More information:

Email: Learning@ArtDocentProgram.com
Phone: (916) 486-4633

Media inquiries about Kickstarter.com can be directed to Kickstarter staff at this email address: press@kickstarter.com …or by exploring their awesome website at http://kickstarter.com

We have 20 days to raise our target of $60,000. But we can make progress with small contributions. If you organize your school and community, contact local media, and spread the word via social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) you can raise enough to pay for ADP in your school, or even your whole district!

Stay tuned! In just a few minutes, we’re going to post the link to our Kickstarter Campaign!

A guitarist portrayed by an Art Docent Program student.

Well, it’s finally here! It’s Youth Art Month (YAM) during the month of March, and this couldn’t be a better time to share the power of art with your school and community. YAM was created in 1961 by the Art & Creative Materials Institute (ACMI) to generate more public support for youth arts education and to bring to light the positive effects an arts education, or even a simple art project, can have on a child’s future.

Here are a few ways you can share the arts at your school:

Host an Art Show: In celebration of the arts, host an art show at your school displaying the art work of your students! This is a great way to show off the talent that is right in your classroom. Have your students make posters, send out fliers, and work with teachers to plan a show at your school for parents and the community to come and enjoy.

Check out Crayola’s Arts Fair!

Have Your Students Do Chalk Art: Spread the word about YAM by making chalk art for the world to see on sidewalks, or even on the playground!

Who Wants to Be an Artist? Host an art trivia game with your students and have students answer questions about artists and themes you’re teaching in class. This is a great way to keep kids on the edge of their seats!

Edible Food Art: Bring edible treats for students that resemble a theme from the gallery visits or an artist’s style. They’ll be sure to remember this one!

Pin It! Design a bulletin board at your school focused on students’ art and artists. You can post facts about the classical artists and your students to celebrate all of their talents!

Have Some Principles: Have your principal read a relevant art quote at the start of each week to remind the school community about the importance of YAM.

It’s All in the Family: Arrange for a family fun night where parents can come and take part in an art workshop based on a theme from a gallery visit!

If you have other plans, tell us all about it on our Facebook page!

The New York Museum of Modern Art is using custom photography, not just taking photos from books and posting them on their website. The site allows you to zoom in close to see the brushwork. Here is a video that Art Docents might find interesting! Learn about FRESCO.

This same type of style is featured in grades 1, 3, and 4 of The Art Docent Program. Archival film footage shows Rivera demonstrating his methods at the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition. Go to the site and take a look at eight murals from the current Rivera exhibit.

Explore the murals via “hotspots” which allow you to click and see more detail and information such as the name of the building, the person and historical photos. If you have an iPad and projector in the classroom, you could show these images and video to your students to enhance your next Art Docent presentation!

Linda Rooney, deputy superintendent of Rocklin Unified School District, wrapped up the panel by noting that these kinds of resources from museums will help students meet the new California Common Core Standards. However, it is a challenge for schools to train teachers and to acquire the technology.

Rooney explained how the Art Docent Program gives students the means to learn how to use these tools and create and learn about art. She introduced us to the audience as the daughters of the creator of the program and she displayed our website and several lessons on the enormous screen in the room. After the presentation, we were greeted by several individuals interested in knowing more about our program. The curator from San Francisco’s MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, was especially interested and helpful.

We hope you will take advantage of these and other apps and websites to learn more about art, art history and to enhance your classroom presentations. We will continue to pass along our research to you to help you become even better Art Docents!

MacWorld: Expert Fingerpainter

As we drove across the Bay Bridge on a sun-drenched Friday morning, admiring the meringue-like fog covering the bay, we weren’t sure what to expect at our visit to MacWorld/iWorld, the all-things Apple Inc. convention and exhibition. Our digital partner, Art Authority, was exhibiting its best-selling app and would host “tech talk,” a panel on technology, art museums and art education. We wanted to hear what the speakers had to say. We hoped to meet some people who would help promote the online version of our Art Docent Program. We also thought it would be fun to see so much new technology and so many apps all in one place!

While it was entertaining and informative to see the exhibits, including a man who was one of those expert finger painter hired simply to amuse  the crowd, the highlight of our day was listening to the panel of museum curators. It was clear that art museums, like the rest of us, are scrambling to make use of the Internet and new technologies. While everyone else in the room took notes on their iPads, I did it the old-school way, with pen and paper.

Here are a few things we learned from curators from San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and Linda Rooney, administrator of Rocklin Unified School District:

Classic Art is Going Viral

Art museums are beginning to share their content online by posting images of artwork on their websites. It’s become so advanced that users can even zoom in and out and even rotate images in order to see greater detail. Museums are developing apps, but many are of low quality and have shown little activity by users. Last July, the Getty museum implemented an app called “Google Goggles.”

They also have “print on demand” so you can choose the artwork you want to print instead of just the best sellers in the gift shop. We also got a glimpse of how the Internet can dramatically help museums and other organizations in this brutal economy. Having an  online presence can:

1.Help raise much needed funds

2.Help fulfill the museum’s mission

3.Increase general awareness and public interest

4. Help a company ditch the “ivory tower” image

On the down side, it is expensive to put together apps. Not to mention, the resolution of beautiful classic art online just can’t compare to seeing these works in person.

Be sure to also take a look at the University of Virginia Art Museum online. The site features good quality photography and rotating animation of sculptures. It’s very kinesthetic and uses large font instead of small like most sites!

Check in next week for more from our visit to MacWorld!

• He wore his mustache in the exaggerated style of his idol, the Spanish artist Velazques, waxing the ends to hold the curl.
• Grasshoppers terrified him so much that he never walked on grass.  When traveling, he was known to attach canvases to his body with strings, for fear of theft.
• He said, ” The only difference between Dali and a crazy man is that Dali is not crazy.”
• He would leap into the air to get him noticed and once drove around in a white Rolls-Royce filled to the roof with cauliflower.  When he attended a party where guests were to dress up as their dreams, he came as a decomposing corpse.
• He spent his life cultivating his image of eccentricity and had a tendency toward big displays of exhibitionism.  One of his famous antics was appearing dressed from head to toe in a diving suit at the opening of one of his London Surrealist exhibitions in 1936.  Not only was the heavy helmet soundproof – no one could hear him – but no one noticed he was suffocating.  The audience roared with laughter and thought his gestures for help were meant to be funny.  Fortunately, he was rescued.
• “It is very difficult to shock the world every twenty-four hours.” Dali

Yellow Cactus, by Georgia O'Keefe

Thanks!