Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Looking for an art program?....

So, any recommendations for a good program for a late-elementary/early-middle school student with exceptional skills in visual arts? This is a student at my school (though not in my class) whose skills in drawing, painting, and photography are really impressive, and who definitely needs an extra challenge. Her mother is hesitant to put her into any local art school classes because they already travel 1.5 hours to school and back every day and so she has practically nothing left of her evenings as it is. I'm hoping to find a distance learning course or an independent program that her mother or I can help her with. Even just a good teach-yourself textbook would help us a lot. Anyone have any suggestions/advice?

Maybe there will be something here? Not a course, exactly, but has the advantage of being free - thus freeing up money for supplies maybe?

http://www.dickblick.com/lesson-plans/grade-level/

Does the family speak German? Would there be a local artist willing to take her on as an apprentice sort of situation?
My DD7 has amazing artistic talent and we've been lucky enough that the art teacher at school is giving her free after school art once a week and letting her explore with other medium that aren't usually allowed at grade 2. She has also put me in touch with a couple of local art clubs/museums that she thinks would love to give her a challenge/ nurture her love and ability in art. (Which is a good thing since neither DH nor I can draw a straight line with a ruler.)

GeoMamma, thanks for the link. Money's not an issue for this family, but she might like having the choice of lessons. I'll add it to my list. Thanks!

Kerry, the apprenticeship thing didn't occur to me, but art classes in the community did, and I did offer to do something after school for her myself. I'm not the best artist in the world, but I'm pretty creative and, as I said to the mum, "GT teachers are trained to be able to help kids whose skills are already beyond our own". Anyway, both options were rejected because of the travelling time issue...staying after school for an hour would (allowing for heavier rush hour traffic) translate into them not getting home until close to 7:00. I might suggest the apprenticeship idea as a possible Saturday thing though.

That dickblick link is amazing. My son is a gifted sculptor and modeller, and this site is going to provide him with so many ideas.thanks

Suggest she visit the local "real" artshop a few times. That is the cluttered one where there are dusty old wierdnesses stacked up in corners, and the canvasses and boards are all stacked messily in slots that go up to the ceiling behind the big rolls of unstretched canvass. A good way to make that happen might be to give her a project for which she needs something obscure, and then phone around for a shop that has it. Once they hear a couple of good questions, they will probably start saying "oh, you'd like THIS" to her on a regular basis If she's really into photography, a local camera club would be great at that age, and you can go irregularly.

There's some good stuff here to draw from, and most of it applies to drawing and painting, not just photography: http://photoinf.com/

I'm less good on drawing and painting stuff, but if she wants a pen-pal, she can always write me (I'm serious, pm me if you want contact info.)

Yay, artsies!

(just noticed the "Germany" bit. My German certainly is NOT up to that. Buf if she speaks english, the offer stands, and maybe she could help me with my german ;))

Thanks all. I forwarded a couple of your suggestions and some online middle school courses I found to the family last week - we're on term break now, so we'll see if anything happens in June. Her mom's pretty proactive (in our principal's words, "irritating"), so I'm sure something will come of it.

I'm not sure if Germany is a part of www.meetup.com, but if it is you might find a lot of art community activity on it. Places to meet up, etc and the mother just might find a few professional artists that would love to inspire an up and coming artist.

I use it for photography and drawing/painting and have found a lot of studio spaces through it.