During the State of the Arts presentation, participants will learn about the GaDOE Fine Arts initiatives for K-12 Fine Arts including the new instructional resources available to all Georgia Arts teachers. These resources include curriculum maps, unit plans, example lesson plans, instructional videos, and assessments all housed on the GaDOE Inspire platform.
Discover how to spark a creative movement in your community by launching a highly successful, county-wide summer art camp. This interactive workshop provides a step-by-step roadmap for camp logistics, innovative visual arts fundraising strategies, and impactful grassroots advocacy tools. Attendees will walk away with a ready-to-use playbook to secure funding, mobilize volunteers, and keep visual arts education thriving both inside and outside your school district lines.
This presentation will share the story of a schoolwide mural collaboration that brought together student voice, community partnership, and public art through a partnership with Paint Love, engaging more than 600 students in grades 1–5. Participants will learn how our student art club helped shape the mural design process, how community collaboration led to the city adopting the mural as an official student-created public artwork, and how Paint Love’s resources and partnership supported the experience. Whether joined by Paint Love representatives or through shared tools and materials, attendees will leave with practical ideas and resources for creating meaningful, student-centered mural projects in their own schools and communities.
A middle school visual art teacher and an elementary school media specialist discuss ways to foster a love for the planet for the next generation of students in K-8. We will share lesson ideas on scientific illustration, earthworks, recycled art, etc. In addition, we will share how to start a birding club at your local school to help students get outside and learn to appreciate our connection to nature and how to preserve this connection. An art activity will also be provided featuring grid drawing and watercolor painting of birds based on the work of John James Audubon. No fee, sinks would be helpful but not absolutely required, projector to connect to chromebook for presentation.
Literacy in the visual arts classroom empowers students to interpret, analyze, and communicate meaning through both images and words, strengthening critical thinking and creative expression. In a hands-on experience like Japanese stab-bound bookmaking, students naturally integrate reading, writing, and visual storytelling as they design pages that convey personal or cultural narratives. This blend of visual and textual literacy deepens engagement, making artmaking a powerful tool for comprehension, reflection, and authentic communication. All materials for creating the Japanese stab-bound book will be provided—just bring your creativity and an open mind to incorporating literacy in the art room.
