Art Smart is a college level art appreciation program redesigned for grammar school students. This program is taught by St. John parent volunteers and is  integrated with the Art Department and supported by the teachers and faculty.

The objective of Art Smart is to familiarize students in kindergarten through 8^th grade with the masters and their works.

The volunteers visit the classroom once a month with various aids such as art work, books, biographies and hands on project relating to the artist or the works of art.

Special emphasis is placed on matching the presentation with the current curriculum in the classroom.

For example: - kindergarten is learning about  geometric shapes - Art Smart introduces a Picasso piece using cubism (a style of art that uses geometric shapes in its representation) in this case they learn about The Three Musicians and create their own picture by combining geometric shapes

In eighth grade we look at Picasso again this time from an historic perspective learning about the famous painting Guernica. This painting depicts the travesties suffered by the Spanish town of Guernica at the hands of the Nazi Luftwaffe during their civil war.

Likewise the 7^th graders who were learning Geometry, at the request of Sr. Ellen, viewed the works of Escher whose art is based on perfect congruent geometric polygon configurations that go on infinitely called tessellations. They were then instructed how to create their own with pencil, paper, scissors and watercolors.

Throughout the school you will see the famous artist oil reproductions. These paintings which are brush stroke accurate, have been sponsored by St. John Families and are rotated through out the year. A few are still available for sponsorship (contact Pat Sollitto for information on availability at seashoresol@aol.com)

The Art Smart program has over 100 laminated art posters and a collection of books and reference materials that the volunteers can draw from. The program covers over 30 artists from the first know art drawings in the Caves at Lascaux to Lichtenstein.

The program culminates in a joint arts festival with the SJA Art Dept that will be held on May 26 - 28.

If you would like to be a part of this program, please contact Pat Sollitto.

Below is the schedule for Art Smart in the Classroom. This schedule is subject to change.