Liberty Children’s Art Project (LCAP) in cooperation with the Gwinn Area Community Schools provided our 11th year of afterschool programs at Sawyer Elementary and Gilbert Elementary schools located in the Gwinn/Sawyer area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the winter/spring  of 2023.   Chloe Fortune,  Michigan certified art teacher taught classes one day a week in a spring six week session. These classes are held immediately after school is dismissed in the school’s art room. These sessions included study in art history and cultures around the world interwoven with art production using a variety of contemporary media and methods.  This year included the following lessons:

Personal Sketchbooks: Fishnames

Stained Glass Window Art

Story Quilts

Totem Clay Sculptures

Nature Printing with Collographs

Art enrichment classes have a profound effect on children in remote area such as this. Artists modeling self-confidence, motivation and curiosity have the potential to be highly inspirational role models. Recent survey results from LCAP classes held  in this area support the positive effects of art. Over half of the students responded that they discovered that they were good at art and that they liked art. An after school art enrichment program provides students with a way to build confidence, participate in a social situation while developing an outlet for creative self expression in a safe and healthy environment. This program was attended by 25 students from the school and was made possible by Marquette Breakfast Rotary  and the state of Michigan through the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.