By Guest Blogger Jes Noel- PAEA Elementary Division Director

Have you ever had a Visiting Artist in your classroom? Neither have I until this past
March where I decided to bring in a blacksmith to my primary class. You may be thinking
“What?! You are bringing a blacksmith into a building full of five to eight-year-olds?  You are CRAZZZY!” Well, I am a bit crazy. However, this was one of the best experiences for my
students and myself. It all began last summer when my principal asked me if I could build a
giant iron train sculpture outside of our building. I looked at him a bit wide-eyed and said   that is not precisely in my wheelhouse as an artist, but I will see what I can do. Now, you are probably wondering why a train. Our School Wide Positive Behavior Model centers around the theme of being an Iron Kid and trains. Our school mascot here at Danville is the Ironmen, and we have a long history of iron forging and railroads. We even have an annual Danville Heritage Festivalevery summer.

Artist Residency Checklist:

Finding An Artist
I started asking around in the community if anyone knew a reputable sculptor or
blacksmith. Eventually, a local community member directed me to Firestone Forge and
blacksmith, Doug Firestone. After contacting Doug, he agreed to build us a T-Rail train for our school. Upon multiple discussions with my Principal and Director of Curriculum, our project began to take shape. I will say, if you are going to build a giant train 8 feet by 23 feet you will need a team of coworkers to help you make this crazy idea a reality!

Communication
Due to Mr. Firestone being over 2 hours away from school, we needed to find the most
beneficial way to communicate. We Skyped, e-mailed, texted and phone conferenced multiple times before my first in-person meeting with him at his studio in December during our virtual tour filming. I did not see Mr. Firestone again in person until he arrived at our school for the residency in March. In creating an open and active form of communication early on, it established a smooth and successful residency.

Funding
Now that I found my artist how were we going to fund this project? After a few
conversations with various art educators in the area, we decided to partner with our local arts council. The Bradford Arts Council helped us fund this substantial residence, and we
supplemented our budget with federal funding and help from our building Home & School
Association. Once we had a source of financing, Mr. Firestone, myself and the administration began crunching the numbers on how much a project this size would cost.

Materials
Once we created our spreadsheet and viewed the numbers, we decided to go the scrap
metal route. Mr. Firestone created a list of necessary supplies, and we reached out to the
district staff and local community members. Within a few months, we had a decent size scrap metal pile growing by our maintenance shed. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

Roadtrip
Mr. Firestone’s studio is over two hours away from our school, and we had no feasible
way of taking all 575 students from our building to his studio, so we decided to create a virtual field trip. Our technology teacher and I drove to Germania, PA to visit Mr. Firestone in his studio. On our visit there, we filmed Mr. Firestone forging an S hook and created a second video interviewing Mr. Firestone essential questions our students wanted to know. These videos were shown to the students two weeks before Mr. Firestone’s visit to help build anticipation and enthusiasm for his visit.

Housing and Meals
Mr. Firestone was coming to stay in our community for a whole week, and we needed to
feed and house him for this time. Our Home and School Association purchased gift cards to
local restaurants in the community for him including breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In regards to housing, one of our district teachers owns a Bed and Breakfast with her family and graciously offered to house him at a reduced rate for the week.

Scheduling
Here at our school, we are on a six-day schedule. Mr. Firestone was coming for five
days. Working with staff, I was able to consolidate our six-day program in five days. This way ALL students were able to work in art class with Mr. Firestone treating our nine-second grade classes as our core group. I was able also to find the staff to cover my lunch duty and other various duties for the week since I was forfeiting planning periods to accommodate the entire school population. Mr. Firestone also graciously agreed to do “Lunch With the Artist.” During “Lunch with the Artist” small group of students ate lunch with Mr. Firestone & our guidance counselor, treating it as a career over lunch activity.

My most significant piece of advice in preparing for a visiting artist is that you need to
have an incredible team to make this successful! I could not have done this without the help of my principal, Director of Curriculum, technology teacher, coworkers, maintenance staff, art council and home & school association. I also highly recommend meeting your artist BEFORE bringing them into your classroom. Not every personality is suited for every grade level. I was fortunate to find Mr. Firestone who is a gentle giant. He was understanding and an excellent listener with my primary students patiently answering all their questions!

Click here to see a video that showcases our Visiting Artist program and the special
thank you gift Mr. Firestone received!