The advantages of bringing art into the classroom are many. Children are natural artists and most love to create visual art. But, learning an art form goes deeper than providing a satisfying experience. The visual arts help children develop skills such as problem solving, creative thinking, hand-eye coordination and observation skills to name a few. And, when the arts are used to teach other core subject content, the leaning can be deeper, and can be of service to a variety of learning styles.
When planning a residency, I collaborate with the teachers to bring meaningful projects into the classroom. Whether the residency integrates visual art with another core subject, or is fully focused on an art form, my goal is to help students discover their creativity and their natural talents.
Selected Arts integrated lessons:
Learning Observation Skills Through Drawing. (Variety of media)
Book of Leaves. (Color pencils and hand-made book)
What’s Eating You? Food Chains and Food Webs of Hawaiian Reefs. (Temporary mural or hand-made books)
Animals and plants of a Hawaiian Reef. (Temporary murals, hand-made books, or individual drawings.)
Class Heritage Quilt (Collage)
Art forms: drawing, collage, printmaking, hand-made books, temporary murals and painting.
Marcia Pasqua received a BFA from University of Hawai‘i-Mānoa in Painting and Drawing, and then continued her visual arts education doing graduate work in sculpture, and independent exploration in printmaking.
She has worked as a teaching artist on the ATP Roster since 2004 presenting AITS Residencies to K-5 students. She also teaches visual arts integrated language arts lessons with Hawai‘i State Art Museum’s outreach Art Bento Program and works as a Museum Guide for the same program. She presents for-credit professional development workshops for K-5 teachers and has taught Creative Arts Education at Chaminade University.
A working artist, Marcia has exhibited both locally and internationally and is represented in both public and private collections.
The Artistic Teaching Partners (ATP) Roster is an adjudicated directory of Hawai‘i professional teaching artists qualified to conduct in-depth residencies in educational settings. Each artist or arts organization has a page in the directory with contact information, a short bio, and an artist statement. The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts draws from this roster for arts education programs including Art Bento at the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum and Artists in the Schools.
