Art students at Travis Elementary recently had an exciting finish to their fall photography project.

Educators from the Amon Carter Museum visited Travis Feb. 21 to tour the student photography exhibit “Our Land” and interview selected art students about their photographs.

Student, Family and Adult Programs Manager Nora Christie Puckett, Teaching and Visual Resources Coordinator Katherine Moloney and Distance Learning Coordinator Nancy Strickland videoed art students Whittney Ratto (fourth grade), Alex Percy (fourth grade), Claudia Espana (fourth grade) and Chip Procter (sixth grade) talking about their experiences.

The students explained how they chose a landscape in Mineral Wells to photograph and what they thought about their results. Amon Carter plans to use the video on their Web site as an example and resource on how art educators can work with the museum to enrich a student’s art experience and museum visits.

Art teachers Skipper Bennett and Debra Strandberg were also interviewed on how this project developed into the final exhibit.

Planning stages actually began last summer when Travis teachers met with Amon Carter officials to map out this year’s visit to their Ketchum photography exhibit, “Regarding the Land, Robert Glenn Ketchum and the Legacy of Eliot Porter.” Ketchum is one of the most important color photographers of the art form. He, as well as Eliot Porter, used their photographs to build support for preserving and protecting places of ecological importance and natural beauty.

While language arts and science teachers coordinated the museum visit with a book study, art teacher Debra Strandberg suggested that fourth and sixth grade art students could expand the experience into a photography project based on what they saw at the museum.

Puckett arranged for disposable cameras to be purchased and photos developed with grant money from the Palo Pinto County Children’s Education Initiative.

For art teachers Bennett and Strandberg, the next step was a pre-museum visit assembly with the fourth and sixth graders to explain what to look for as they toured the exhibit. Their presentation highlighted the history of photography as an art form and the biographies and artistic style of Eliot Porter and Robert Ketchum.

Fourth and sixth grade students toured the museum in October, but an added adventure awaited Travis sixth grade art students. With Strickland’s help, the sixth graders also participated in an interactive satellite video conference with Robert Glenn Ketchum from the galleries of the museum.

“The students came into the room with preconceived ideas about what an ‘artist’ was,” Bennett said. “To their surprise, Ketchum was a very entertaining speaker and responded to students questions in an honest and candid way.”

In November, art students were given the project outline and goals, their disposable camera and an assignment to focus on four areas: their favorite color outdoors; the time of day; the season of the year; and creating a sense of place.

The challenge was to look at their everyday surroundings and notice the beauty that they may have taken for granted. Each student took 12 photographs and had to select their best effort to enter in the aptly named show “Our Land” now on display now in the Travis Library.

As the project came full circle, Travis student artists now had the experience of being an artist/ photographer and having their views of Mineral Wells on display.

“It has been an extraordinary experience for all of us,” stated Strandberg. “We received invaluable support all the way through the project from Travis Principal, Bruce Butler and the very special people at the Amon Carter Museum. We congratulate our students on their vision and creativity.”