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Arts in Our Schools Month!
In celebration of March being “Arts in Our Schools” Month, Yancey County Schools is highlighting the middle school Art class taught by Tracy Stebbeds. His program recently received specialty kilns for glass work. East Yancey and Cane River Middle Schools will both have a glass kiln in the Art classroom which Mr Stebbeds will use to teach warm glass art techniques.
Mr Stebbeds is very enthusiastic about being one of the only school districts in the country to teach glass work at the middle school level. His goal is to teach 6th, 7th, and 8th graders this art form which may develop into an advanced art class.
“We will be doing the "warm glass" method that involves "fusing" different colored and shaped pieces of glass to create items like pendants and other jewelry, as well sun catchers and small sculptural pieces, etc.” said Mr Stebbeds. “Our biggest limit is size as glass kilns tend to be smaller than ceramic kilns. We may expand into using small glass molds in the future.”
Also down the road, Mr Stebbeds is looking into more out-of-the-box types of glass work such as “Freeze and Fuse”. This method involves mixing wet powder glass and water, then packing it into a mold and freezing it. Once frozen solid, the object is popped out onto a kiln shelf and heated to fuse the frozen powder together, forming a solid glass object.
Mr Stebbeds went on to praise Assistant Superintendent Heather Cox for her work in securing the funds needed to purchase the kilns and supplies, stating, “[Mrs Cox] has been very receptive to my ideas and has been a great proponent of the Arts department…. This would not have ever been possible without her.”
YCS continues to seek new and innovative opportunities to expose our students to many different art forms and areas of study that could spark interest in a career previously unknown to them.
Toe River Arts Scholarships for the Arts Application Opens
Toe River Arts Scholarship for the Arts is made possible by an endowment fund held by the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina. These scholarships are awarded to individuals from Yancey or Mitchell County, North Carolina, who are pursuing higher education in arts or arts education. Each scholarship will be paid directly to the degree- based institution of the applicant’s attendance.
ELIGIBILITY
Scholarships ranging from $500-$1000 are awarded annually under the title of the Toe River Scholarships for the Arts.
Awards are open to graduating seniors, and to adult residents of Yancey or Mitchell County, North Carolina, who are pursuing higher education for arts or arts education and who are enrolled or in the process of enrolling. Previous Toe River Arts Scholarships for the Arts award winners are not eligible to apply. If the applicant is turned down for admission, the scholarship will not be allocated. Additionally, if the applicant withdraws from the arts related program, the scholarship will be returned to Toe River Arts by the granting institution.
Link to application: https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/kFrz0t0f29uUQUxeo6-j_A
Link to webpage with more information:
https://toeriverarts.org/artists/education-outreach/scholarship-for-the-arts/
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Yancey County Schools
