San Angelo ISD Students Experience Open Air Art During Annual En Plein Air Collaboration

San Angelo ISD Students Experience Open Air Art During Annual En Plein Air Collaboration

San Angelo ISD elementary and middle school students had the unique opportunity to engage with visiting artists from one of the City’s most unique attractions, En Plein Air Texas. Taking its name from the French term meaning “in the open air” the weeklong event hosted in the San Angelo area provided San Angelo ISD students opportunities to connect with talented artists from all over the world. 

“We are fortunate that the En Plein Air event brings talented artists from around the country and world to our beautiful West Texas landscape. The willingness of these artists to share their precious time with our students is heartwarming and may inspire a future artist from right here in SAISD,” said SAISD Director of Advanced Academics and Fine Arts Tiffany Huebner. “The visiting artists reminded students to pay attention to the beauty around them and that practice makes you better in anything that you do. We owe the artists, Barbara Rallo, and Jennifer Crutchfiled a huge thank you for ensuring our students were a part of this event.”

All SAISD elementary and middle schools were treated to an opportunity to engage with a visiting artist, with one artist presenting at each school. Visiting artists enabled the schools and students to celebrate the importance of art and the history in West Texas, while also recognizing how art activates children's brains in unique, impactful ways. Students observed artists actively painting and interacted with them asking questions ranging from “What inspired you to become an artist?”, “How do you decide what paint brush to use?”, “What happens when the sun goes down and you can’t see what you are painting?”, and “How much are your paintings worth?”. 

San Angelo ISD is proud to partner with En Plein Air and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts (SAMFA) to bring our students unique opportunities like this to cultivate their skills within our SAISD Learner Profile such as collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking. En Plein Air Texas brings 35 nationally acclaimed artists to San Angelo to paint scenes of our beautiful West Texas landscapes. A focus of En Plein Air Texas and SAMFA is to connect the plein air with the West Texas community and with artists from around the world, creating an ongoing artistic dialogue that increases the visibility and participation of plein air painting with children, adults, and rural West Texas communities. To learn more about En Plein Air Texas, visit the annual event’s website here: www.enpleinairtexas.com

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