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Melissa Gerhart
Michelle Livek
LTC 4740- Inquiry in Art Ed.
11 March 2015
Reviving Art in Rural Communities
Growing up in a small town in Mid- Missouri, I experienced first hand the atmosphere of
a small art program. Although my art experience in California, Missouri at Moniteau County R-I
was better than most students attending a small school would experience, there were definitely
weaknesses in the program. As an aspiring art teach passionate about moving to a rural area, I
believe it is important to revive the arts in these small communities and especially in the local
schools. Through well-educated art teachers and programs that support the arts, communities
struggling to maintain strong art programs can succeed. Art education is invaluable in rural areas
because all students benefit from opportunities to respond to art as support through successful art
programs in and out of schools and through visual thinking strategies.
In our school system, art is invaluable. Art poses many opportunities for students to
succeed and improve their learning. Students who partake in the arts regularly are more likely to
achieve academically and socially, as well as have better feelings about themselves. By
implementing strong art programs in rural schools, students will achieve in academics, as wells
as social skills, and feelings of self worth will rise. As students partake in art programs, research
shows that students succeed in academics as well as social skills. According to author Sally
Campbell, there is a direct correlation between student participation in the arts and success in
social skills and academia (449).

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Another benefit of strong art programs is the feeling of achievement and self worth that
the students gain. When students are not exposed to art throughout schooling, students retain
insecure feelings while analyzing and looking at art. According to Campbell, students who are
not exposed to art feel inadequate and unable when they look at art or go to a museum. (449)
These students who are not given a chance to learn how to analyze art feel as though they are not
good enough for the art. This is not a feeling we want our society to have, which is why it is
important to create educated artists in our school system. By implementing strong art programs,
we can eliminate these feelings and provide students with an education where they feel confident
and able to enjoy art to its fullest potential.
Just as there are issues with art programs in urban schools, rural schools have serious
hurdles to jump. By definition, a rural area has a very small population of fewer than 2,500
people. A small town ranges in population between 2,500, yet less than 25,000 (Campbell 445).
These school systems are limited on funds as well as resources. When considering funding, with
no surprise, rural schools are relatively less wealthy than other school districts in different
settings (Campbell 446). If funding is low for the school, funding for the arts is little to none.
This creates issues for the teacher to gather materials needed for the year. Also, when funds are
low, the likelihood of students being able to take an art related field trip is slim to none.
School systems in rural or small communities are limited not only by funding, but also by
their location. Because small towns are so isolated in areas like Mid Missouri, traveling to
museums can be costly and require long traveling distances. Between funding and location, trips
to museums are nearly impossible for these schools. When trips to museums are limited if even
an option, discussing specific pieces art in the classroom becomes much more important. Also,
when these circumstances arrive, it is vital for teachers to use online resources to improvise.

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As a student from a rural community struggling with funds for field trips, I remember
only one art related trip. In elementary school, we took a trip to the Missouri State Capitol where
we briefly looked at the Thomas Hart Benton paintings. While we were invited to partake in
looking at art, this one-day field trip was not enough to count for 13 years of education. Although
we were extremely far away from any chance at visiting a large museum, our school improvised
and did the next best thing to ensure we saw important art to our culture by Benton.
Authors Kathy Unrath and Mick Luehrman suggest one solution to school systems that
struggle with access to museum visits in their article Bringing Children to Art: Bringing Art to
Children. After studying pre-service art education teachers at the University of Missouri and
schools interactions with museums, the two devised a system of bringing the art to the students.
Pre-services teachers, while still taking students to museums worked to bring museums to the
students. In the article, the students created Portable Childrens Museums. These museums
created a viewing of art that could be transported from room to room for all students to
participate in the viewing of the art. Each museum was centered around one cohesive artistic
theme and then brought into the classroom for students to engage with like they would at the
museum (Unrath and Luehramn, 43-44). For school systems with limited access to museums,
such as my school, teachers can use portable museums to allow students to gain access to
viewing art similarly to how they would in a museum.
Although living in a rural community and advocating for the arts can be a struggle, there
are various solutions to the problem. Across the United States, many programs have been
implemented to allow for success in the arts in rural communities. Some of these include Project
ARTS, After- School Art, and Visual Thinking Strategies. If teachers in rural areas familiarize
themselves with some of these programs, they can better their own art program with the help of

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their school system and community. Campbell states that because of funding, rural schools may
not have the funds to provide these types of programs (450). I believe if teachers value the
importance of art education and take time to understand the important parts of building a strong
art community in a rural school, it is possible to do so on a limited budget.
Before discussing how these programs have been successfully implemented in other
small communities, it is important to understand the needs of a rural school district. Small school
districts have specific needs. Authors Gilbert Clark and Enid Zimmerman state in their article
Greater Understanding of Local Community: A Community- Based Art Education Program for
Rural Schools, Students in rural schools are also at risk and require educational programs
designed to meet their specific needs. (33). Included in these specific needs is the high value of
community and culture in rural schools and communities. Many programs recognize that and
integrate these values into their curriculum. As stated by the author Marjorie Manifold in her
article Valuing a Rural Aesthetic, It is not only awareness of other Western and global
cultures, but also depth and quality understanding of both local and diverse nonlocal cultural
expressions that should be among educators concerns. (23). Likewise, the art program, Project
ARTS, shares those same values.
Project ARTS is an art program heavily invested in the local communities culture and
values, which from experience I believe is important in maintaining a strong art program in a
rural community. In the acronym, ARTS stands for Arts for Rural Teachers and Students (Clark
and Zimmerman, 34). This program originated in small communities around the country in rural
elementary settings (Clark and Zimmerman, 34). Throughout this program, students studied
various art around their community. This included crafts, folk art, and language. Also, in this
program students studied architecture and the history of the architecture in their town, as a way

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to bring awareness to the students about where they live and the importance of the history of the
town. When I was an art student in a small community, we worked on similar projects and
studied architecture. One project we worked on was each student chose an important and
longstanding building in our community to draw form observation. After the drawings were
finished, they were made into a calendar and sold to the community. This was a great way to get
student art into the community while raising awareness of the rich architecture we are blessed
with.
During this program, students also learned about murals and their importance in a
community. As a part of the Project Arts program, students participated in A Walk Down Main
Street which was a theme of the curriculum that focused on local history where students were
able to see actual artists creating a mural in the community (Clark and Zimmerman, 36). This
definitely could have been implemented in my community as we had a local artist create a huge
mural on the side of a building that represented our community. This would have been a great
time to introduce the artist students in my school to a practicing artist.
After students learned about and witnessed mural making, the students created a mural at
their school. The focus of their mural was based on the ideas they studied through the program,
which was focused on the history and values of the community (Clark and Zimmerman, 37). I
believe this is so important in a small community as it shows the students giving back to a
community that gives so much to them. From my experience, our local community is always
helping our school system through fundraisers. I believe it is important for the school systems to
return the favor in any way possible. This is one way that this can be achieved.
As a part of my communitys history, we had a small pharmacy on the main street of our
town. This pharmacy had an old Coca-Cola mural on the side of it. Through years of weathering,

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the mural started to decay. Our local art community at our school gave back to the community by
volunteering to bring the mural back to life. This is just one example of how the arts can
participate actively in thanking the community.
Another program that focuses heavily on culture and community is the After-School Art
program, or ASA. This program is a free program for students to participate in art in rural
communities. This program is similar in many ways to Project ARTS, as its curriculum is
focused on the culture and community. Campbell suggests that there are four attributes that come
together to create a successful art program such as ASA. These four attributes include, focus on
the community, using existing resources, discussion of community issues, and actively
participant/ student directed (Campbell 451-453). According to the author, all of these attributes
are key to a successful art program, which I agree.
Campbell suggests the importance of community as the subject of art as well as learning
its history and issues, which agrees with the authors Clark and Zimmerman. While agreeing,
Campbell suggests another key aspect to creating strong programs in rural communities, which is
the importance of using already existing resources. Because rural and small school systems have
limited budgeting, especially when it comes to the arts, it is important that art teachers are aware
of the resources they already have available. Campbells article discusses the partnership
between a local college and the small school, in which the college donated supplies and
volunteers to help with the art program. While this is not always realistic for small and rural
communities, it is realistic that there might be local artists willing to volunteer their time to speak
to the class. In this case, students would be learning about art and their community.
Campbells article also suggests using a coffee house to display student work (452). In a
small community, many places of business are locally owned which creates a friendly and

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welcoming atmosphere. Also, these locally owned business would be a great place to display
student artwork around the town to promote the arts. In my community, one local diner displays
artwork by a local artist. It is always interesting to see the new pieces as you go to eat. I believe
the same would be true for student artwork. Just as it is exciting to see the new art pieces as an
outsider, it would be exciting for students to see their pieces around town as well. This would
create a feeling of pride and self-worth as students get to proudly display their pieces in public
areas.
Just as community and localness is important in a rural area, partnership is also
important. In many small school systems, there is only one art teacher for the entire kindergarten
through twelfth-grade school system. These circumstances make partnership invaluable. Authors
Catherine Egenberger and Phillip Yenawine discuss a partnership between a rural school in
Byron, Minnesota and a museum in their article As Theory Becomes Practice: A Happy Tale of
a School/Museum Partnership. In this article, the author discusses the partnerships between
these two and their implementation of Visual Thinking Strategies, or VTS. If we help one
teacher learn the skills and confidence to teach about art to his/ her students, we can touch the
lives of many children, says Kate, the Museums veteran Chair of education. (Egenberger and
Yenawine 2) This quote is highly important in a rural school district, as sometimes the staff
number is extremely low. If just one teacher has the required training, they can make a huge
impact on the art program.
Just as most other rural communities, Byron did not have the resources to create a strong
art program. Through the partnership of the school and museum, they were able to find resources
to provide professional development in art for all instructors in the district, including substitutes
(Egenberger and Yenawine 3-5). This professional development allowed teachers to see the value

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in art and how it can positively impact students in other areas of education. This partnership
valued the recognition of all students responses to art as long as the students could provide
evidence that would support their answers (Egenberger and Yenawine 7). This system
encourages students to investigate and explore new ideas when looking at art as well as when
working in other subjects.
Here, the partnership also valued culture as a part of study. All of the lessons
implemented through Visual Thinking Strategies and the partnership of the school and museum
were rooted deeply in culture. Students studied various cultures, time periods, and artistic
medium (Egenberger and Yenawine 7). This is similar to the other authors opinions of culture
and community, but different because they looked at all cultures, not only theirs. I believe this is
important because to understand your communities culture, students must understand other
communities cultures to be able to compare and contrast the two.
As this partnership took place, the same partnerships were taking place between students
in urban communities. Based on data collected during the study, rural communities grew more in
terms of aesthetic development than the control group. (Egenberger and Yenawine 8) The study
showed that students, as well as parents and instructors, showed changes in performance in
written and verbal discussion, which included longer sentences, more complete sentences, as
well as longer descriptions. Also, there was in increase in symbolism used in description. Overall
this partnership, with its strong roots in student lead exploration of images, allowed students the
access to art while increasing their language arts skills.
This specific partnership would be ideal for any art program hoping to flourish, but with
the lack of proximity to a museum capable of these leaps and bounds, there are difficulties.
Although students may not have access to large museums, there are alternative ways for students

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to view and discuss art such as online virtual tours at museums such as the Louvre. It is
important as art teachers in rural communities to take advantage of these online resources as they
may be the next closest thing available to viewing art at large museums.
Although it is unrealistic that every rural school system would have access to all of these
wonderful art programs, it is important as art educators of rural communities that we take the
time to discover the uniqueness of the situations. By investing time in investigating programs
such as Project ARTS, After-School Arts, and Visual Thinking Strategies, art educators can find
ways to create their own successful art curriculum that is specific to rural communities. Not
always will there be funding or access to important materials, but by learning from these
successful art programs and adapting them to fit the needs of the specific area, art programs in
rural communities can shine. Now that we know that rural communities struggle because of
limited funding, distance to resources, and lack of local programs, it is obvious that art teachers
in rural communities must deeply investigate ways to create a strong and lasting art program.

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Resources

Campbell, Sally. Shouts In the Dark: Community Arts Organization for Students in Rural
Schools with Urban Problems. Education and Urban Society 33.4 (2001): 445-456.
Web. 2 Mar. 2015.
Clark, Gilbert., & Enid Zimmerman. Greater Understanding of the Local Community: A
Community-Based Art Education Program for Rural Schools. Art Education 53.2 (2000):
33-39. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.
Egenberger, Catherine, & Phillip Yenawine. As Theory Becomes Practice: A Happy Tale of a
School/Museum Partnership. Visual Understanding in Education. (1997). Web. 2 Mar.
2015.
Manifold, Marjorie. C. Valuing a Rural Esthetic. Art Education, 53.4 (2000): 18-24. Web. 2 Mar.
2015.
Unrath, Kathy and Mick Luehrman . Bringing Children to Art: Bringing Art to the Children.
Art Education 62.1 (2009): 41-47. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.