Every May groups of elementary school students take field trips to the Arts Council for our Art Education in Action program. They have the opportunity to tour the current exhibit, participate in some hands on art activities, and view artists in action. This year the exhibit was “Generations: The Art and Culture of the Tulalip Tribes”, which I mentioned in my first post.

After the field trips end we start getting thank you letters from the students, which are the best! You can’t help but smile when you read these and many also include some great drawings. And, it is always interesting to see what kids remember or pick up on from their visit. I’ve included some excerpts from a couple letters below that I hope you’ll enjoy! (And these are as they were written, no editing on our part!)

“Last week we visited the exhibit Generations. I like the name because then people know its from long ago to today.”

“I loved the metal salmon and the bear totem pole. I felt like I wanted to get inside the totem pole.”

“I felt like I wanted to use the canoe a lot of times and I felt like playing Bratz dolls in the longhouse.”

“My favorite piece of art is the metal bear beacuse the bear looked like is was jumping through the wall. And I like bears. I also really liked making the art beacuse I love art!”

“I enjoyed making the totem pole faces because I had a chance to make some Northern styl art. At first I thought that the Northern tribes wer the only tribes but I gues that I was wrong. Thank you for teaching me tons of interesting facts, like how the Salish artists mostly use circles crecents oh and the trigon.”

“Thank you from having us and showing us art from different people. I learned the difference between the Nothern and the Salish shapes. The Salish had circle, crescent, and the trigon. The Nothern tribe had split U, U and oval. Those facts may come in handy sometime. That was the best tour of art I have ever gone on in my life.”

“I liked the canoe. The story of the canoe made me feel like I wanted to jump in the canoe and paddle away. I might see the exhibit again.”

“Thank you for sponsoring the Everett Native American Exhibit. I liked the mask that looked like Gene Simions. I never knew that the Native Americans used shapes to make their pictures. The stamping project was really fun.”