LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The third-grade classes at Stonewall Elementary School are working on a group project – in a way – by creating squares for a class quilt.
The Kentucky Arts Council and their Teaching Art Together grant gives students the opportunity to learn from community artists and work on unique projects. That includes combining paint, sponges, and fabric.
“Each class, a student will make an individual quilt square,” shared teaching artist Brooke Harris, who has visited each third grade class to lead the project. “We have volunteers that are going to sew them all together into a class quilt for each class.”
“I think my favorite part of this project is seeing the students come together and make something as a collective piece,” Stonewall art teacher Jess Scolf said.
“Whenever we do paint we use normally paintbrushes,” third grader Sterling Ramos said, describing the feeling in painting with sponges. “It was different for me because I have to stick it on here instead of brushing it.”
Each fabric square will be sewn together to make a quilt. The students were tasked with telling the story of their own third grade class. The sponges involved had varying shapes, and different tables in the art class had a different set of shapes to use.
“They have their own opportunity to speak about how they're an individual and create something individually,” Scolf said. “Then we're connecting it together to tell that class story.”
So what’s the story of these shapes? The student artists explained.
“The shapes are like math,” said Sloan Smith. “These arrows are like how you're growing.”
“It kind of felt like it belonged in school or something,” Ramos said of his design.
“I painted with pencils and to represent like us drawing and doing sketches,” Mae Massaro shared.
With each fabric finished, these artists will wait to see their square-stitched story connected to make up their class quilt.
Community members have volunteered to sew the squares together. The completed class quilts made by the third graders will be auctioned off at Arts Night on April 30.
