Artsonia Names Addelynn Slinger “Artist Of The Week”

Artsonia Names Addelynn Slinger “Artist Of The Week”

by | Mar 10, 2023 | Community Partners

Addelynn Slinger won Artsonia’s Artist of the Week competition. Pictured with Ebru Ekici (left) and Christy Davis (right).

Farragut Intermediate’s Addelynn Slinger was named the Artsonia Artist of the Week out of hundreds of thousands of student artwork submissions.

Artsonia is an online gallery for student art and a hub for teacher lesson plans and resources. Out of the 247,000 pieces of artwork uploaded to Artsonia that week, Slinger’s piece was randomly selected for the Artist of the Week competition.

“We have a really great community, so our PTO put it on Facebook, and we sent it out to parents, and we voted,” Farragut Intermediate art teacher Christy Davis said. “We voted in class, so that was cool about having the Chromebooks in class because we had them log in and vote each day.”

Slinger won the competition with over 1,500 votes, which earned her and her classroom a gift card to Blick Art Materials. She said she was “really excited” to win and already purchased art supplies for her growing hobby. 

“Ms. Davis really helped me create this. I kept asking her if this looked good, or if I need to fix anything,” Slinger said. “My friends helped me think of ideas to make my artwork better.”

Davis incorporated Artsonia into her classroom over a decade ago so students will be able to look back on their school art projects. The only piece of artwork she has from her childhood is a mug she keeps on her desk, and she wants her students to be able to upload their work onto a permanent database so they can hold onto their childhood memories longer. 

Davis and fellow FIS art teacher Ebru Ekici have their students upload every assignment they finish in art class. 

“We put everything on there, good or bad,” Davis said. “Put everything up there and be proud of what you did and accomplished.”

Uploading the work online also builds other skills, such as photography and photo editing. 

“They need to write, come up with a creative title, artist statement,” Ekici said. “It’s not only making art and putting it there but learning how to communicate and share it with others.”

The longstanding relationship with Artsonia may be growing in the coming years. 

“We are going to be a pilot program in the district for Artsonia,” Davis said. “It’s the first time they’re going to have a gallery for our district because we’ve been involved a lot.”

Davis hopes more schools in the district will use Artsonia in their classrooms and believes this pilot program might be just the encouragement they need.

View Slinger’s winning piece here.

Students Honored At Elementary Art Competition

Students Honored At Elementary Art Competition

by | Dec 9, 2022 | Art, Elementary School, Student Success

Fourth-grader Avery Quilty and art teacher Genevieve Byrd at Pleasant Ridge Elementary with “Ice Cream Spidey.”

Three KCS students’ artwork will be on display at the Tennessee State Museum next year, as part of a statewide competition.

Elementary art teachers from across the state could submit their students’ work for the State of Tennessee Art Review and Showcase (STARS) competition, but only 19 pieces, the top three per grade level and one best of show, were selected. The showcase will be open to the public from January to May.

The KCS honorees are: 

  • 1st grader Joyce Hu (3rd place, Farragut Primary, art teacher Ruth Granroth),
  • 3rd grader Leah Powers (3rd place, Powell Elementary, art teacher Jenny Snead), and 
  • 4th grader Avery Quilty (3rd place, Pleasant Ridge Elementary, art teacher Genevieve Byrd).

Avery Quilty’s piece, which she named “Ice Cream Spidey,” was nominated by Byrd, who taught the fourth grade class about Henri Matisse, an artist famous for his collages.

“I wanted them to be able to look at his art and see how you can combine different types of shapes,” Byrd said. “I gave them a really, really broad theme. I said, ‘We’re going to combine a creature or animal with food.’”

Quilty sketched four different designs and decided to combine a strawberry ice cream cone with a six-legged spider, which she constructed out of paper and glue. 

“This is the first time something really big has happened in my life,” Quilty said. 

She plans to travel to Nashville in January for the ribbon presentation and to view her art in a museum for the first time. 

The fourth grader hopes to continue growing her artistic skills and one day become an animator.