Art Start Northwest, located within Edmonds’ Graphite Arts Center, donated 2,000 sketchbooks and restocked art supplies at five schools for the 2024-2025 school year.

Each student at Chase Lake, College Place, Cedar Valley, Lynndale and Spruce Elementary Schools will receive a sketchbook and access to quality supplies, including brushes, paint and other materials needed to create and learn. The five schools received supplies based on the number of students from lower-income families determined by Title I data. The information showed gaps in academic achievement between income tiers.

Art Start founder and owner of Graphite Arts Center Mary Olsen and Art Start Education Director Missy Hancock believe all students should have access to quality materials, but they understand that not all students can afford them. Both have backgrounds in art education and have witnessed the crushing effect that inferior tools and supplies can have on students, especially when their peers have premium materials.

They said that when students all have the same materials to work with, self-consciousness is removed, and creative collaboration is opened.

“The students feed off of each other,” Olsen said.

Graphite Arts Center will showcase student work at an art show in April 2025. The first show was held last April.

Graphite Arts Center is a creative space in downtown Edmonds that provides affordable studio and locker space for emerging and established artists. It also offers lectures and classes, including classes for teachers.

Olsen and Hancock understand that elementary school teachers must be jacks of all trades: English, math, science and art.

Hancock said that Art Start taught workshops last fall to give educators new tools for using visual art in their lessons. The workshops included one easy-to-follow art lesson each month that can be used in their class curriculum.

The workshops started with a foundation class, which gave the teachers practice with various techniques, such as oil pastel, charcoal, watercolor and collage.

Next was sketchbook training. This class showed the value of incorporating visual art into the classroom to encourage student engagement.

The final section was called “Clay.” It was a two-part workshop demonstrating techniques for working in three dimensions.

But what if the teacher is a whiz at math, science and English but thinks they’re a terrible artist?

“The people who say they are terrible artists were told that by someone once,” Olsen said.

Like the elementary school students, Olsen explained that some teachers face self-doubt. She said that by the conclusion of the workshops, they felt more confident in their abilities and had acquired additional teaching resources.

“Fine art can be intimidating,” Olsen said. “It doesn’t have to be scary.”

To learn more about Graphite Art Center and Art Start Northwest, click here.

— By Rick Sinnett