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  • Alex Public Schools recently received the Picturing America art grant, an innovative program to teach America’s history through art. Alex students Lindsay Cox (left) and Chad Halford display a print of Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom of Speech” from the Feb. 20, 1943 Saturday Evening Post.

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October 19, 2008

Alex schools receive art grant

Great art speaks powerfully, inspires fresh thinking and connects us to our past. Alex Public Schools have been notified they are a recipient of an art grant.

Picturing America, an innovative program to teach America’s history through our nation’s art, comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities in cooperation with the American Library Association. This artistic heritage-our paintings, sculpture, architecture, fine crafts and photography-offers unique insights into the character, ideals, and aspirations of our country.

Alex is one of 26,000 school libraries or public libraries nation wide, one of 424 in Oklahoma and one of four in Grady County to receive this art collection.

Half of the initial recipients went to school libraries in communities with a population of 25,000 or less. The collection features 40, 24” X 36” reproductions of the nation’s greatest art pieces spanning several centuries of our country’s history, ranging from the work of early Indian artists to painters, photographers, and architects.

These masterpieces featuring diverse people and places depicting America’s travails and triumphs help demonstrate to students how art is connected to significant events, and themes and topics in the American experience.

They touch on the Pass objectives in all core classes, history, government, literature. Math, science, and music. The program uses art as a catalyst for the study of American culture, political, and historical life throughout its history.

The paintings are divided into five major themes: Leadership, Freedom and Equality, Democracy and Courage, Landscapes, Creativity and Ingenuity. The paintings can also be put into groups to illustrate these qualities of American life, Revolutionary Spirit, American Values, and Connecting Cultures.

Alex is thrilled and excited to have been chosen as a recipient of these museum-quality reproductions.

It will allow the students to see close-up what is only available at the countries finest museums and gives teachers an important visual tool to use in teaching Pass objectives.

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