Creative Classrooms – Contemporary at Blue Star

Creative Classrooms is an educational program created by the Contemporary that sites professional artists in K-8 classrooms with a goal to increase access to arts education. Artists-in-Community translate their studio practices into classroom curricula and TEKS-aligned art projects for students, building visual literacy through creative, critical, and exploratory thinking.

Creative Classrooms projects engage the students’ creative impulses and provide healthy self-expression through hands-on activities complementing their public-school curricula. Students learn to navigate the world around them, build their visual literacy, and solve complex problems through creative thinking.

A key component of the program, and something core to the Contemporary’s mission to inspire creative genius by nurturing artists, is that the Artists-in-Community are professional artists who sustain vibrant careers as creatives. The Artists-in-Community, have advanced fine arts degrees, and their decades of professional practice lend an unparalleled expertise in materials, technique, and theory, which they translate into age-appropriate interactive projects. They serve as role models, showing firsthand that a career as a creative professional is viable and sustainable.

Creative Classrooms is in session for 9 weeks each fall and spring semester and culminates in an exhibition of the students’ work at the Contemporary’s Spring Family Saturday. Parents, students, and teachers are invited to attend to see their students’ work on view at BSC and engage further with our exhibitions and youth workshops.

The program is offered at no cost to the school.

For more information please contact us at hello@contemporarysa.org.

Download lesson plans created by Artists-in-Community Emily Fleisher and Sarah Fox for Creative Classrooms to incorporate into your classroom or home art-making!