Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Susanne Bowling, right, looks at Dannah Patterson’s painting during art class at Calvin Donaldson Elementary School.When Susanne Bowling started teaching art at Calvin Donaldson Environmental Science Academy, she found third-graders who couldn’t wield a pair of scissors and fifth-graders who had never held a paintbrush.
When class was over, students would start crying, afraid they wouldn’t be allowed to come back.
Out of 44 elementary schools in the district, only 11 have art programs, and only four of those are funded by the school system. The rest are paid for through fundraisers and parent-teacher associations.
“It’s a huge gap in our education. We’re not teaching to the creative side of children, the problem-solving side of children,” Bowling said.
So Bowling, an artist and former educator, got together with friend Gayle Ligon and launched a nonprofit organization to offer art programs to elementary schools willing to give them classroom space.