WHILE LEARNING THE ART OF TEACHING, six JMU art education practicum students helped 15-year veteran teacher Melanie Mason ('84) teach global cultures and civilizations to first- through sixth-grade students in a campus Saturday art program. The teaching techniques far surpassed visual aids. It was grab your apron, glue this, paint that, hands-on art.

The Madison Art Collection and the JMU Art Education Center sponsored the series to share the culture of civilizations from around the world with curious, sticky-fingered participants. Through their art lessons, children traveled to ancient Egypt, the ancient Near East, classical Greece and Rome, China and the Far East, Africa, and the native Americas.

While elementary school children danced, glued, beaded and finger-painted, Mason, a certified art educator, helped JMU practicum students learn to plan art lessons through the use of the Madison Arts Resource Site. The combination gallery and study center houses JMU's 3,000-piece collection of artifacts and art objects representing cultures from the Neolithic Period through the 20th century.

After the Nov. 15 class, students promenaded with their creations while learning dances from North and South America.