For the 7th Grade Wellness Day at James Williams Middle School, ArtStart helped bring eight artists to teach students.
“There are numerous benefits of being creative and making art and doing it in community. There's lots of studies out now measuring the effects. It helps calm you down. It's kind of a brain break, you know, you could think of it that way,” said Melinda Childs, the community and cultural development director at ArtStart. “It gives them just a little space to relax and be themselves. Have some self-expression, sometimes writing and collaging, you can be expressing things that you're holding inside that you might not be able to verbalize.”
The different art sessions ranged from photography and collage to yoga and songwriting. The students got to pick two sessions to participate in. The artists are paid for their time.
“In 7th grade, art becomes an elective and it is more of a class. They are graded, and they're learning arts objectives,” said Childs. “This is different. Just making art as a hobby or as something that's relaxing and helpful, that's exactly the point of what we're trying to do.”
Some of the students are happy to get a break from class work while recognizing that taking the time to focus on something artistic does impact their mood.
“It makes me feel pretty good. It’s pretty relaxing, and not super hyper, like, exciting. It's just pretty chill,” said Cami Sandberg.
“I like it better than doing actual schoolwork. It like, calms me down,” said Singer Childs.
This is the second year the middle school has done a wellness day. Associate Principal Ingrid Bodensteiner says it’s a good way to get students to slow down. She also likes that it connects them with the community.
“I think students really appreciate it when people come into the schools to share their time with them,” said Bodensteiner. “They like to get to know new people. It really increases our sense of community. It's just a real community feel on these days which is really fun.”
She says the timing of it is intentional as well. This time of year can be hard for a lot of people (not just kids) as winter drags on. It’s also ahead of spring break, so Bodensteiner hopes the day will inspire some students to do similar activities in their time away from school.
“They get to work with their peers in a way that they haven't before. It's a relaxed setting and a relaxed environment,” said Bodensteiner. “They're also learning skills that they can replicate easily at home. The activities that we have done with the students and that ArtStart has provided for students are activities that transfer so easily for students to home.”
The same program was also done with 6th graders earlier in the school year and will also be done with 8th graders.
