Key Peninsula’s Art Barn was bustling with activity Friday night as members of Two Waters Arts Alliance prepared for their upcoming Spring Fling art show March 10 at the Key Peninsula Civic Center.Kathy Barrett, Dee Dee Johnson and Laura Mosley busied themselves with framing a large painting, while Beverly Pederson looked over donations to the project.

“We have a lot of artists that have donated work,” she said. “We just have to frame it.”

The Spring Fling is TWAA’s annual fundraiser which features the work of students on the peninsula, music, food and entertainment.

“The party is going to rock the rafters at the Key Peninsula Civic Center in Vaughn,” TWAA member Sue Stuhaug said. “For a bunch of volunteers, they really do some amazing things for the community.”

They expect that this year’s event, which will celebrate TWAA’s 10th anniversary, will be the largest.

While funding from past flings have funded TWAA’s many projects, this year will focus mainly on the Artists in Schools program.

It’s a “two-pronged effort,” Stuhaug said. The first matches teachers with local artists to collaborate on curriculum themes, and the second has local artists teach small groups of students during after-school programs.

“Different artists bring different specialties throughout the school year,” she said. “Not only did the parallel programs expand educational opportunities for peninsula children, but, with underwriting from TWAA, it did so without siphoning off limited school financial resources.”

Lauren Littleton, program director for Artists in Schools, said the more they work with schools, the more involved the schools become and the passion the artists have for their craft rubs off on students.

“Once the teachers realize what we have to offer, they just don’t want it, they need it,” she said. “It enriches their curriculum and complements what they’re already teaching. There’s a lot of struggling in the community, and when you can bring something in with a passion, it makes kids look at things in a different way.”

Stuhaug said the founders of TWAA felt the cutting of arts and music from the school curriculum left a horrid gap in education.

“To ax the creative side of a child’s brain did not make sense for a well-rounded educational experience,” she said. “But in a time of tight public money and incredible demands upon limited school resources, the arts sit well below the salt at the education table.”

Aside from what it brings to the students and teachers, sharing their knowledge enriches the artists themselves. One unexpected bonus of the program, Littleton said, was watching students develop a love of art first-hand.

“I’ve been around a lot of people who have been artists for a long time, but you don’t see the beginning,” she said. “Here, you see the light bulb go on. I’m watching the beginning of a creation, and we’ve brought it to them. It’s a byproduct of Artists in Schools.”

The after-school program has taken off, Littleton said. Key Peninsula Middle School activity buses offer students rides home from various programs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, opening up opportunities for students who may have transportation issues.

TWAA was founded in 2002 and is a now an established non-profit educational body.

“Two Waters is bridging, as far as possible, the financial chasm by funding the artists in residence as well as their essential arts materials needs,” Stuhaug said. “Two Waters is a rainbow spectrum of visual and performing arts, splashing an exciting wash of events from one end of the peninsula to the other.”

TWAA’s other endeavors have included the summer music and arts festival “Beyond The Borders,” the Andrew Evans Magic Show, adult art workshops, juried art shows and the extremely successful “Seussical The Musical.”

The upcoming Spring Fling will help keep arts education alive and well in the Key Peninsula schools. For more information, visit www.twowaters.org.


Sue Stuhaug contributed to this story.