CARFAC Fine Arts Conference Experience

Thank you to everyone who attended the ATA Calgary and Regional Fine Arts Mini-Conference!

It was a new experience to have our annual conference at a smaller venue. This year was more intimate and included excellent presenters, leaving our delegates wanting more.

The morning was welcomed with HOJA singing their hearts out down the halls of the Foundations for the Fine Arts School in the South.

I was able to attend a couple of sessions throughout the day. In the morning I attended Ms. McCleer's session on Art Integration Across the Curriculum. Our presenter wove a tapestry of creative ideas, projects flowing from Spanish class, to Math, to Social Studies, to Science, and all incorporating the beauty and tactile joy of visual arts. We were sent away with a ton of ideas and resources, my favorite being the website The Art Educator's Definitive Guide to OK Go: theartofed.com. I also walked away with jewelry designed from binary code! What awesome ideas!

Also in the morning I joined an excited group to create puppets, and learn about the benefits of puppetry in the Language Arts or English classroom. Our presenter was utilizing them with junior high students to promote more active participation, and developing their skills in script writing and drama. The room was bubbling with conversation about the variety of activities to use at different age levels. For me, this kind of project really works on developing students' fine motor skills. Years ago I had sewn finger puppets with a group of grade 4/5s who went on to use them to retell familiar parts of, and create new scenes for the story "The Secret World of Og".

At lunch was an interesting take on this year's Annual General Meeting for the Fine Arts Council. Congrats to all the new Executive Members! Thank you to everyone who quietly munched on their croissant or gluten-free sandwiches and we tackled Skype in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge all together.

The day also included sessions on Orff, percussion instrumentation, clay and more! Stay tuned for our ATA Fine Arts Conference to take place in Edmonton at the Fantasyland Hotel, October 2018.

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