KALISPELL – Edgerton Elementary School in Kalispell has partnered with local businesses to show the public the importance of art in education.
Artist in residence Pilar McEnulty says the installation at Edgerton — “Gone Fishing” — was inspired by Glacier National Park.
Right now, Art installations are located around Kalispell at Edgerton, the Hockaday Museum — and even at our KAJ studios — to promote the relationship between schools and businesses and the importance of art.
McEnulty says students at Edgerton from kindergarten to fifth grade participated in making the art piece.
Integrating art and the classroom, third graders used math equations to appropriately size the mountains and kindergarteners used watercolors to create the dragonflies.
McEnulty told MTN News that a project like this is crucial to elementary learning.
“Art is a way to use both sides of the brain and to really be able to create something that is beyond just paper and pencil and something that explains their learning in another dimension,” McEnulty said.
This is the first year Edgerton Elementary School has done an art collaboration with Kalispell businesses.
McEnulty says that the school will continue this tradition next year.
Reporting by Maren Siu for MTN News
