Students, Governor cARTie Hearty

When asked ​“does art matter?” second graders Mercedes, Mason, and Elia agreed ​“yes.” Then they showed some of the reasons: Mason drew a sign reading ​“art = peace.” Elia drew a self-portrait. And Mercedes drew a rainbow, reading ​“I love art.” 

That was the scene at Edgewood Creative Thinking through (STEAM) Magnet School as it was paid a visit Monday by cARTie, a museum bus that travels around Connecticut providing PreK-2nd grade youth with museum-based learning experiences rooted in arts learning and social justice. 

“The goal is to make them feel comfortable at these young ages with art and know they belong in these spaces,” Executive Director Clare Murray said. 

The cARTie bus and team were not the only visitors to Edgewood Monday. State and city leaders joined to watch and join the students in using art as a language. The visitors included State Rep. Pat Dillion, schools Superintendent Madeline Negrón, Mayor Justin Elicker, and Gov. Ned Lamont.

The leaders came to the school to celebrate the ongoing arts and outdoor learning programming at Edgewood while also seeing for the first time the school’s student mural made last year in collaboration with cARTie. 

cARTie was founded three years ago by mother-daughter team Tisha Murray and Clare Murray. Clare has a background in arts education and researching the impact of the arts for elementary aged youth. Edgewood was a part of the program’s first seven school partners that signed onto the mission to help bridge inequities in arts education for early childhood classrooms several times a year.

“Through museum-based learning, we tap into 21st century skills like critical thinking and social emotional learning,” Clare said. ​“Art is a universal language.”

The program has grown from partnering with seven schools to 17 last year and currently 27 so far this year. This has allowed for cARTie to work with 5,000 students a year. 

The bus exhibit is changed annually. It exhibits art pieces made by Connecticut’s middle and high school students. This year cARTie partnered with the American School for the Deaf , which collaborated with deaf student-artists in Kenya. Monday’s bus was filled with 32 art pieces made by students who used art to communicate with others. 

To donate to cARTie click here. A $10 donation helps support one student/s visit to the mobile museum.

The cARTie program will visit Edgewood three more times for the remainder of the school year ​‚making for a total of eight different hands-on art lessons for Edgewood’s elementary students. 

The second-grade class Monday was split into two groups. One spent time diving into art on the bus. The other made cardboard signs to communicate through art. 

Outside of the bus, museum educator Nicole Pappo asked the students ‚“Do you think we can express ourselves with more than just words?” 

The students cheered ​“yes” then put their markers to paper to express their ideas and feelings. 

On the parked bus, students looked through an exhibit of pieces depicting American and British sign language used by artists in Connecticut and Kenya. The students then used pencil and markers to tell their own stories through artworks.

Drawings on a long sheet of paper by the students ranged from dream houses and puppy palaces to rocket ships and the French invading the Empire State Building. 

When Lamont arrived at the school he was not surprised to see Elicker with marker in hand joining the students in making signs for ​“why art matters.”

“Good work there Elicker,” he said.

“Don’t disturb an artist when hard at work,” Elicker responded. 

After Monday’s lesson students reported that they taught the governor how to make a smiley face, created a secret handshake with him, and even volunteered to take over his job in the near future.