“Guardian Bank is proud to fund a new partnership with the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts. Our team was eager to be involved with the opportunity to develop and enhance educational opportunities in the arts for children, young adults, and adults in Valdosta and the surrounding area.” –” Parrish Clark, CEO of Guardian Bank.
With assistance from a Guardian Bank grant, Debi Davis, arts education administrator with the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, is teaching art education classes at Echols County High School.
As a teacher and artist, Debi Davis understands the important role art education plays in a child’s full development.
Shortly after retiring from the Lowndes County School System, Davis began her second career with the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts. In 2016, she was hired as the center’s first arts education administrator and was tasked with developing art education programs for children and adults.
Funded by a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant, Davis has developed a series titled “Art Talks,” which combines in-class instruction with a visit to the Turner Center to help fully engage the students in looking at, thinking about, and discussing art.
Starting in the classroom, students review the elements of art—shape, line, color, space, texture, and form—by viewing a reproduction of the artwork they will see on their visit to the Turner Center.
“The teachers are asked to prepare their students for the Art Talks experience beforehand,” Davis said. “Each teacher is given a lesson plan and a digital image of a selected painting to introduce to their students.”
Students also discuss the difference between viewing an original piece of artwork and the reproduction, as well as interpreting artwork using formal analysis and research.
“The goal of the NEA grant was engagement through capacity building, which spilled over into learning,” said Davis, who served as president of the Georgia Art Education Association from 2009 to 2011. “The primary objective was to introduce middle and high school students, including those who had never been or would probably never come to the Turner Center on their own.”
During a five-month period, Davis conducted 21 Art Talks with more than 530 students.
Through the Art Talks, students were asked to document their thoughts regarding the artwork and research the artists by visiting their website and reading artist statements.
“The major point was to make students aware that viewing an original piece of art shows much more than viewing the digital image,” Davis said, “and they could connect to the artwork even if they never knew what the artist had in mind when he or she created the piece.”
Davis was recently contacted by the administration at Echols County High School and asked to teach art education classes.
“The counselor at Echols County High School contacted the Turner Center regarding several very talented high school students that would benefit from some art instruction, since the Echols County School System has no art classes at any level,” Davis said. “I was able to set up after-school drawing classes twice a week for any student interested in taking art classes.”
The classes are focused on the traditional elements of art, the study of color, realism, and painting.
With the expense of art supplies, Davis said most of the students had not experienced anything more than paper and pencil drawing.
“When a person is interested in art, he or she will usually begin with paper and pencil since those materials are readily available and inexpensive,” Davis said. “Paint, on the other hand, is more expensive and harder to teach yourself. I will continue with painting and add three-dimensional in the spring.”
Maricela Mendoza is benefiting from art education classes sponsored by the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts at Echols County High School.
Davis plans to continue the Art Talks and classes at Echols County High School, with the goal to expand art education programs in surrounding communities in the near future.
“We learned that if you build it, they will come,” Davis said. “With incentives, strong programs, and solid groundwork, the Turner Center can become a legitimate educational resource for students and teachers in the region.”
Though the NEA grant has expired, Davis said the education programs would continue and new initiatives developed through a grant from Guardian Bank.
“Guardian Bank is proud to fund a new partnership with the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts,” said Guardian Bank Chief Executive Officer Parrish Clark. “Our team was eager to be involved with the opportunity to develop and enhance educational opportunities in the arts for children, young adults, and adults in Valdosta and the surrounding area.
“We read with great interest how this partnership will provide unique opportunities and instruction in a variety of artistic offerings. This is the type of program that fits well with Guardian Bank’s own strategic plan and its focus on opportunities to enhance education, support economic growth, and improve quality of life in our area. We are pleased to be an integral part of how the newly developed concept will open creative pathways for people of all ages.”
Davis said new initiatives include developing career pathway classes to help students learn marketable skills including photography, photo editing, web design, and video editing.
“It would be very difficult to add these programs without the support of Guardian Bank,” Davis said. “Their support is allowing the Turner Center to offer computer-based art and to expand our traditional art classes in such a way that expands our reach tremendously to the region’s population.”