Sculpture Walk and Art Museum Field Trip
On Oct. 13, 2022, the Argonia 4th grade students took a field trip with our art teacher Ms. Juliana Whisman from The Art Center in Anthony, KS. Ms. Juliana first took us on a sculpture walk along the Arkansas River in downtown Wichita. We started at the Keeper of the Plains. Before going on our field trip, we studied Black Bear Bosin who was the artist that created the Keeper of the Plains. The kids loved being able to see what we have learned in real life and to also learn some new things we didn’t learn while doing our research. We all agreed that it was an amazing piece of art. Our next sculpture was the Troll of Wichita. Have you ever heard of this sculpture? We sure hadn’t! The troll was actually underground in a sewer drain and we viewed him through a sidewalk grate. We all agreed he was pretty creepy and interesting looking! Our final sculpture on our walk was a Vietnam War sculpture. The kids thought it was a great way to remember our soldiers. Each sculpture display was unique because each one appealed to our senses differently. This will be great whenever we start our writing lessons next week about adding sensory details into our writing! After the sculpture walk we loaded back onto the bus and headed to the Wichita Art Museum. We enjoyed the beautiful weather while we sat outside and ate. When we started the tour, we split into two groups. Each group got to take a walk around the outside of the building to view more sculptures and beautiful landscaping, tour some of the art exhibits inside, and then we did a hands-on art project. We saw some really amazing pieces and all agreed we needed to come back to see the rest of the art exhibits! For our hands-on art project, we created an optical illusion disco ball. One of the exhibits we got to view included optical illusions where you had to put on special glasses to see the optical illusions. Our disco ball was created on a flat piece of aluminum foil and we drew lines and painted it to make it look 3D! They were pretty awesome looking! Did you know that on Saturdays you can visit the Wichita Art Museum for free? Also, one Saturday each month you can create your own piece of art during an art lesson taught to you by one of the artists hired by the Wichita Art Museum. You can visit their website for more details. The majority of the 4th grade class would love to go back again and recommends you should go too! Thank you to Ms. Juliana and The Anthony Art Center for sponsoring our field trip. It was a great experience and a wonderful day!
