Welcome to The Pando Project
Learn about the importance of art and reap all the benefits of practicing art regularly!
Welcome to The Pando Project
Learn about the importance of art and reap all the benefits of practicing art regularly!
First off, What's a Pando?
No, I did not just spell "panda" wrong.
The name "The Pando Project" was inspired by the Pando Forest, a grove of quaking aspen trees located within the Fishlake National Forest in Utah. What makes the Pando Forest truly special though, is that the entire grove, which includes around 47,000 trees, is technically only one organism. The forest is the largest organism on Earth. Each of its trees are connected to the same root system and are all genetic clones of each other. The forest was presumably named the Pando Forest because in Latin, the word pando means "I spread." I think that the symbolism of the name fits with the goal of the project, to spread an appreciation and awareness of art to young students and to give them useful skills and knowledge that they can apply to all aspects of their lives.
A picture of the Pando forest, the largest organism by mass in the world.
The Pando Art Project
Restoring art classes in elementary schools
Art is often overlooked in k-12 education despite its many benefits. Learning about and practicing art regularly has been shown to increase student’s rates of graduation, decrease problems in behavior, and increase students’ retention of information. Practicing art regularly can also enhance people's creativity, critical thinking, decision-making skills, and self-esteem, which are all desirable traits in most career fields and life in general. Students need to be exposed to the creative arts from an early age, yet very few public schools do this.
My Mission
To give back to the community by connecting high school volunteers with elementary school students in order to give younger students a chance to learn about and explore art, and older students the chance to gain teaching experience.
Presentation Basics
Each presentation I make will have two elements, an interactive lecture, and a project related to the content of the lecture. Each presentation is about a different era in art history, artist, or artistic tradition, and are all designed to foster elementary school students' creativity and curiosity.