Bigfork Art & Cultural Center hosts Love the Wild Foundation’s Inspired Classroom

After school program facilitates learning about

their environmental world

through the Arts

by Julie Bottum on October 18th, 2021

Love the Wild Foundation with Green Kids Club, Inc. collaborated with the Arts and Literacy After School and Summer Program at Bigfork Art and Cultural Center. This group addresses the educational needs of Bigfork (and surrounding area) children by providing them with art-infused project-based learning opportunities that facilitate development of observational, communication, and collaborative skills with other students to enhance creative processes and find solutions.  This six week collaboration embraced the mission to introduce children to the uniqueness and the beauty of our natural world, by educating them about the importance of protecting our planet and its inhabitants.

Together with Sylvia Medina’s children’s book; Grizzly 399 and Love the Wild’s online learning platform, “MentorIC”, students learn about environmental issues through storytelling using books, videos, and other multimedia resources. 

The focus of this fall's program is Grand Teton National Park and Bridger-Teton National Forest's famous native; Grizzly 399 and her 2020 cubs.  Over the course of the six week program with the support of gifted local artists/educators; the kids have learned various art media techniques, techniques of drawing and proportions as they created cartoons and sculpture representation of their understanding of the issues Grizzly 399 and her cubs face and of course Learning about Grizzlies! They were able to take the books with beautiful illustrations by Morgan Spicer and photos by Thomas Mangelsen, an amazing wildlife photographer and use these in their representations.