Update 2010

Moving Waters flows to New Braunfels, Texas. 04ARTS Foundation in collaboration with the Edwards Aquifer Authority has created Discover the Edwards Aquifer, a new community outreach program of the Edwards Aquifer Authority. The program combines art and empirical observation to help students and their families learn about their natural environment by studying various river systems. This program consists of a series of colorful, artistic, bilingual workbooks individually dedicated to a specific river system in the Edwards Aquifer region. The Comal River Workbook is the first publication of the new program. New lesson plans have been created to engage students in a discovery-based connection to Texas rivers and their ecosystems.

Fall 2010

Go to www.edwardsaquifer.org to access lesson plans and educational opportunities concerning your watershed area.

04arts in the Community

Since 1998, 04ARTS Foundation has been dedicated to bringing exceptional art from around the world into the classrooms and lives of the students of the San Antonio Independent School District. For so many of our students, Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) has opened up an entirely new range of creative experiences and opportunities. Through the integration of in-class VTS curriculum and the highly successful San Antonio Museum of Art and Blue Star Contemporary Arts Center VTS Family Days, 04ARTS has created meaningful art-making and art-looking experiences for children throughout the district.

Our experience has demonstrated that it is possible to make a very concrete difference in the lives of our city's children through the development of cutting-edge educational programming made available to the school districts of the region. Before 04ARTS brought the VTS to the SAISD, many students and parents had never been to an art museum, had never had the chance to look at original works of art or to create works of art themselves with the help of professional artists from the community.

Moving Waters: a Dynamic Curriculum

04ARTS has developed a new curriculum called Moving Waters, focused on the educational and aesthetic teaching opportunities in the San Antonio River. The San Antonio River, with its diversity of wildlife, city life, and historical significance, embodies the ongoing narrative of our great city. 04ARTS offers the Moving Waters curriculum as a path to engage the imaginations of students through art, observation and ecology.

Moving Waters Workbook

The Moving Waters Workbook was created to help educate students on the workings of nature and river life through interactive journaling and art-making. We have developed Moving Waters Family Days, with activities centered on river habitat and ecology.

The Moving Waters Workbook will help students to find a connection to nature and to their own creative voice through discovery-based art making. For example, students from Stephen F. Austin Elementary Internal Fine Arts Charter School have had the opportunity to work with local artists Joey Fauerso and Jenny Brown, as well as nationally recognized environmental artist Stacy Levy, in creating works of art based on their knowledge and experience of the San Antonio River.

Over 40,000 Moving Waters workbooks have been distributed to elementary school students throughout the San Antonio river watershed area. Utilizing the highest levels of expertise within the fields of environmental art, science and elementary education, we will continue to create programs that educate students on the city in which they live, and to enrich their own personal relationship to the natural world.

For information on how to receive your copy of the Moving Waters Workbook, contact 04arts Director Penelope Speier. pspeier@04arts.org

Downloadable Lesson Plans

These art-making activities, developed in conjunction with the Moving Waters Workbook, are based on the principles of Visual Thinking Strategies.

Building Bridges: Design Your Own Model of a bridge to Cross the San Antonio River

Moving Waters, Moving Color

Moving Waters: Every Action has a Reaction

River Mapping: Connecting Individuals to their Environment through Student-Centered Urban Design

River Rocks: Create a Riverbed of Painted Stones

River Stories: Tell the Story of Your Own Journey Along the San Antonio River

Water Tower: The Art of Light and Transparency. Build an Amazing Tower Using Light, Water, and Color