Cape Horn-Skye Elementary School and Canyon Creek Middle School (CCMS) students used art skills developed through the year to compete in a contest celebrating local history, with winning submissions featured at the annual Parkersville Day celebration on June 1, 2024. Cape and CCMS Art Teacher Alice Yang connected art lessons with history lessons, and student-created sculptures, paintings, drawings, and embroidered fabrics that celebrate the Camas-Washougal history.
Artwork was judged by Molly Coston, Susan Tripp, and Roland Tripp, with winners selected in each category for grades kindergarten through second, third through fifth, and sixth through eighth.
Yang’s art classroom introduces art mediums to students, and then they are provided choices in which mediums to use for various projects. Yang said, “When I went back for my masters in Art Education, I learned about choice-based art. Rather than the whole class doing the same art project, our classroom is run like a real art studio.” She added that, “Students learn how to use different media and can choose to create their artworks based on what medium they want to explore.”
The student artwork will be on display at the Port of Camas Washougal's office through the summer for community members interested in seeing these in person.
Visual and performing arts in the Washougal School District are funded by the Educational Programs and Operations levy, thanks to generous voter support.