Columbia Basin Allied Arts has supported visual arts along with our theater performances. Did you ever hear the story when they brought a collection of Rodin sculptures to Big Bend Community College’s WALLENSTIEN Theater? Have you seen our collection at the Samaritan Clinic?
Currently, our Visual Arts component consists of two major projects:
1. Pieced Together: Mural Project. We are the in the 4th of 5 years in partnership with the Moses Lake Museum and Grant County Fairgrounds to make and share new murals with the public. Maybe you’ve seen the new murals around the fairgrounds. Maybe you’ve helped paint one (if so, see if you can spot yourself in one of our PHOTOS). This year, artist Erika Kovalenko will be sketching out the last mural – first, to be painted by Grant County Fair attendees, and finally, for the 5th and final year of the project, to be painted by Erika, using the collaborative piece as inspiration, on the water cistern near the fairgrounds – to be celebrated in April 2020 during a 5k eARTh Walk!
2. ArtBoxes. We are working with a team of 3rd grade teachers in Ephrata to create an 8-week easy-to-use curriculum of visual arts lessons. We believe the arts are an imperative part of k-12 learning, as does Washington State, who adopted a k-12 arts learning curriculum. This project will help steer teachers away from “craft” projects and towards “art” lessons that teach the vocabulary, techniques and concepts of art. This project is partially funded by a grant from Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA).
