SPARK! ARTS
Fancy February Update
Ringing in the New Year with SPARK! Arts
HUGE THANK YOU to Painting with a Twist for Sponsoring our SPARK! Arts face painting table at Arts Missoula's First Night 2020 celebration! This peacock and porcupine, as well as so many other kids, had SO MUCH FUN getting their faces painted to ring in the new year in style!

We wish you all a very happy 2020. Here's to another year of expressing ourselves and creating beautiful art together!
Recent Arts Integration Residencies
Turning the Wheel Missoula recently completed an arts integration residency in the life skills classes at CS Porter! Check out these fun photos!!
The students at Chief Charlo and Rattlesnake had tons of fun studying Colonial America and making clay face jugs with SPARK! Arts teaching artist, Alison Reintjes !
Students at C.S. Porter got to learn about African Drum and Dance with Unity Dance & Drum!! Check out what the students had to say about the experience: (All spelling, grammar, punctuation errors were left as written)

"I learned that African drumming and dancing takes skills and patients, and we don't give it enough credit for the way it makes you use your body and move."
-AG, student at C.S. Porter

"I learn multiple things like no matter how silly it is just be confident and make it fun. I learned that there are a lot of different drums and different rithems."
-AS, student at C.S. Porter
Sleepover at the Symphony!
All MCPS 4th graders took a trip in their PJ's to the Dennison Theatre last Friday to experience Missoula Symphony's "Sleepover at the Museum" . Missoula Symphony Association collaborated with Montana Natural History Center to bring us this fun-filled concert featuring our favorite exhibits: dinosaurs, gemstones, insects and more!

The author and composer, Karen LeFrak, was also in the audience!! HOW COOL?!?!
A Note from SPARK! Arts Director
SPARK! Arts continues to look at ways to bring more arts into the MCPS school district, ensuring equitable access to the arts for all of our children. Through a partnership with the University of Montana and Missoula County Public Schools and the 21st Century Teaching and Learning Grant of Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, we have developed a strategic and sustainable professional development plan to equip our classroom teachers with arts integration strategies and our local teaching artists with training to increase their knowledge and skills.

Last month, we visited arts integration schools in Phoenix, Arizona . Principals from Rattlesnake Elementary, Lewis and Clark Elementary and Washington Middle School were able to take tours of three schools, and talk with administrators about their experience with implementing arts integration. In June, teams from each of these schools will attend the Kennedy Center's Arts Integration Conference to deepen their arts integration knowledge.

This Monday, we welcomed Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, Melanie Rick , to Meadow Hill Middle School and Chief Charlo Elementary to lead a workshop, Reading Art Across the Curriculum . On Tuesday, Melanie was demonstrating teaching strategies in the classrooms! We can't wait to see what the Meadow Hill and Chief Charlo teachers do with this training, and the many benefits that will come with implementing this arts integration strategy in the classroom.

~ Sienna Solberg
SPARK! Arts Director
Above: Mural at  Highland Arts Elementary  in Mesa, AZ.

Right: Missoula team in Phoenix, AZ, L to R: Sienna Solberg (SPARK! Arts Director), Julie Robitaille (MCPS Executive Regional Director), Pam Wright (Rattlesnake Principal), Karen Kaufmann (UM Dance Professor & UM Creative Pulse Director), Amy Shattuck (Lewis and Clark Principal), Kacie Laslovich (Washington Principal)
Coming Up Next for SPARK! Arts...
Coming up next, all MCPS 6th graders will be heading to The Wilma for their own private screening as part of Big Sky Documentary Film Festival!!!

SO MANY amazing arts integration residencies coming up! Did you know you can always check the Calendar on the SPARK! Arts website to see when our Teaching Artists will be in classrooms?

Support SPARK! Arts
SPARK! Arts relies on donations from supporters like you to ensure equal access to arts integrated learning for ALL our K-8 students. Please consider making a donation to SPARK! Arts today!