Afternoon of the Arts Expands to Every School in the District

Afternoon of the Arts is now funded for every school in the Stanwood-Camano School District. With approval from the Olson Foundation, a program that until now was limited to elementary schools will reach students from kindergarten through high school. What started in 2024 as a single pilot at Utsalady Elementary has become district-wide arts education.

That growth is the Meyer Art Center’s mission in practice: putting professional working artists in front of as many young people in this community as possible.

How it started

The 2024 pilot ran at Utsalady Elementary with the school’s Booster Club, and it was built around three simple ideas.

Students made Artist Trading Cards, working in a different medium at each grade level and then trading them with friends and teachers during a trading time the principal set aside. A student art auction at the school’s annual STEAM Fair raised money to help keep the program going. And at the principal’s request, students created large-scale work for the school’s hallways, walls and stairwells.

This fall

At Utsalady Elementary, the program is running eight classes over five weeks, with Shogo Ota as the featured teaching artist. Shogo also led the Utsalady student mural, and will speak about youth arts education at the Meyer Art Center’s Holiday Open House in December.

At Saratoga School Family Learning Center, the district’s parent partnership program, Afternoon of the Arts will include homeschool students for the first time. That extends the program to families who learn outside a traditional classroom, and who are easy to miss when programming is built around school buildings.

This spring

Elger Bay Elementary, Twin City Elementary and Stanwood Elementary join the program in the spring.

Beyond elementary

The biggest change is who the program can reach. Until this year, Afternoon of the Arts was funded for elementary schools only. With the Olson Foundation’s approval it now extends to middle schools, high schools, and the high school transition program serving students ages 18 to 22, making a complete K–12 arts education offering across the district.

The transition program is worth naming on its own. Students aged 18 to 22 are often past the point where arts programming is offered to them at all, and they are exactly the group for whom making something by hand, alongside other people, tends to carry weight.

Taught by working artists

Afternoon of the Arts is taught by Meyer artists, established and emerging artists from this community, so students learn from people who make their living making art. Celebrating young artists and emerging artists in the same program is the point of it: the students see a working practice up close, and the artists are paid to teach in their own community.

Stanwood-Camano School District Superintendent Dr. Ryan Ovenell has noted that more than 500 district students had the opportunity to learn from professional artists in a single year through Afternoon of the Arts and community mural projects.

Get involved

Want to bring Afternoon of the Arts to your school? Email admin@meyerartcenter.org, or support the program. You can also learn more about Afternoon of the Arts.