Elementary Students Design Quilt Inspired by Famous Painter

Story originally published by The Gleaner.

A talented group of students honed their creativity to do something they had never done before-sew a quilt.

Every year a group of fourth- and fifth-grade students visit the John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, Kentucky, as part of a field trip for a gifted and talented art program. They spend three-days painting canvases and learning other artistic techniques, but this year the park's arts administrator wanted to try something new.

"Every year I try to do something totally different," Kim McGrew, the park's arts administrator, told The Gleaner. "That's the first year we have done a quilt or anything like it."

After painting raw canvases inspired by John James Audubon paintings such as "The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird," the park's business manager, Beth Tompkins, got to work sewing them together to create a quilt called Art is My Nature.

"We try to expose them to different kinds of media, different kinds of materials, different paint so they get a different experience than they are maybe even comfortable with," said gifted and talented teacher Nicole Newland.

The students' artwork was displayed in a program exhibit, and the quilt was especially a hit (so much so that it may be hung in the Kentucky Capitol during a student exhibit this year).