On Monday, February 1st, Bret Harte Elementary hosted a drive-by art gallery, featuring art that the students made from home. The school’s PTA zip tied page protectors to the fencing along both sides of the school at Lima st and Ontario st. The students had a week to create their art and bring it by the school to place it inside one of the protectors.
PTA’s have been extremely creative this year in order to keep some of their programs going but with a virtual twist. Bret Harte has always done an Art Day in January, and wanted to continue the tradition while maintaining distance and staying safe. 200 page protectors were hung the week before Art Day for families to come by on their own time and display their work. Due to heavy rainfall, their Art Day was pushed back a few days to allow for safe delivery of the art.
“I think Art Day is important to keep going even though there’s no in person school. It gives the kids some kind of normalcy in our current environment,” said Bret Harte parent and PTA Art Day Chair, Jasmine Collier. “It gives them a chance to express themselves and see their school connect through art, even though they can’t all physically be together.”
On Monday, the actual day assigned to their Art Day, families were encouraged to drive around the school to view all of the student’s work. The theme chosen for the art was “What Makes You Unique,” to help encourage kids to share what makes them special and wonderful and to strengthen that confidence within them. Art also needed to be 2 dimensional and 8.5×11” to be able to fit in the protector.
The school also intends to keep the protectors up through February to allow for Valentine’s Day artwork. Since there are no passing of cards between classmates this year, students are encouraged to draw or write to their friends and classes and post them up on the school fence.
