What We've Done: 2022-23 Art Docent Program
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WHAT IS THE ART DOCENT PROGRAM?
The goal of the Art Docent Program is to stimulate, at an early age, a child's awareness of art and to help them understand its process through hands-on participation. Volunteers sign up to teach in elementary classrooms once a month. Lessons are in kit format and offer a progressive understanding of artists, methods, and mediums.
Started 30 years ago, it began with three parents with three lessons for all the schools in the district to share. It has now grown to over 75 lessons and averages 130 Art Docents annually. All together, docents teach more than 875 lessons per year. This adds up to over 20,000 individual pieces of artwork that are created by this wonderful program.
WHO HEADS THE PROGRAM?
Meet Jeannie Behr, RVUSD's Art Docent Coordinator!
Jeannie was born and raised in Oakland, CA but has lived in Sonoma County for the past 43 years. Married for 38 years, she has 2 children who attended Whited Elementary School. It was during their elementary schooling that she began volunteering as an Art Docent, which was in its 5th year of existence. Instructing came easily as she was a preschool teacher and taught summer camp art for many years.
After teaching in the classroom for 9 years, she became the coordinator. Under her guidance for the past 21 years, she's expanded and improved the program exponentially. In addition to heading the program, Jeannie taught the Charter 7th & 8th graders art for 4 years as well as 5th & 6th graders at SRACS for the past 19 years.
She begins each school year by recruiting volunteers to teach monthly art lessons. Her goal is to find a docent for every teacher who requests one. On average, there are about 130 art docents a year. Her days are spent teaching the docents lessons, developing new projects, purchasing and preparing materials, and restocking the art kits. There are about a dozen lessons per grade level and several kits for each lesson, all stored in her office on Spring Lake Middle School's campus. She also recruits and helps the coordinators with the annual Fine Arts Day at each of RVUSD's school sites.
During the 2020-21 school year when students were in the distance learning model, Jeannie developed, filmed and edited new art lessons each week to put on YouTube for RVUSD's Wednesday enrichment classes.
SHOW ME THE ART!
GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY
Examples of Art Docent Lessons
can be found in the Art Docent Room at:
Spring Lake Middle School4675 Mayette AveRoom K2 (20)Santa Rosa CA 95405
Art Docent: (707) 545-1771Ext. 4701
WHAT THE ART DOCENT PROGRAM OFFERS
In the Classroom
RVUSD's Art Docent Program began in the spring of 1990 and is still going strong thanks to many dedicated administrators, teachers, parents, and volunteers who value its purpose. Our community provides the tools needed for our children to succeed, and art is just as important in fostering a child's need to create and think critically. While the program's backbone is strong because of their support, the need to raise funds for the arts still exists. With budget cuts looming, help us ensure that next year our Rincon Valley schools have docent lead art instruction every month in each of our classrooms at every grade level. If you believe that ART is vital to providing a well-rounded education, join us in making an IMPACT.
FINE ARTS DAY
The Fine Arts Day Program is a 1 day intensive "art day" at each of our schools. Each class participates in two different grade-appropriate art lessons - ranging from 3D art to mosaics to ballroom dancing to mural painting, and the day culminates in an all-school assembly. Lessons are led by a combination of artists trained in different mediums, parent volunteers, and classroom teachers.
- The goal of the day is threefold:
- To expose our classrooms to an art medium that they might not have experienced before;
- To give our students the opportunity to explore an art lesson at a deeper level;
- To provide in-depth art exploration during the classroom day in a safe, fun environment.
