Forest City ArtsSmarts

London Community News

Photo by Mike Maloney/London Community News/Twitter: mdmaloneyphoto Artist Educator Tricia Edgar works with Mountsfield Public School grade eight students Brooklyn and Jessica, assembling limbs for a large-scale tree sculpture that students were creating as part of the Inspiration Day, ArtsSmarts, 21^st Century Youth Creativity Challenge on Thursday (Oct.11). Designed to engage kids with learning through arts, the ArtsSmarts project posed the question to students, ‘What is my Forest City and how am I involved in it.’ In all, 120 grade seven and eight students at Mountsfield, took part in the Inspiration Day program geared around helping them to better understand their community and how they fit into it. The students participated in two separate, hands-on art making activities as well as learning about history, geography and science pertaining to London through a historical re-enactment and presentations by Friends of the Coves and the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. Mountsfield Public School was just one of 14 schools from across Canada to be granted funding for this program through ArtsSmarts, a national charity that supports, promotes and demonstrates the impact of the arts as a way of engaging students in 21^st century life and learning. Find us on Facebook: London Community News