Artsonia Names Addelynn Slinger “Artist Of The Week”
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.