Art teacher Chelzee Lentz has long been a fan of artist Dale Chihuly, but it wasn’t until this year that she brought that passion to the students of Ethridge Elementary.
This summer, Lentz traveled to Seattle to visit the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum and study Chihuly’s work in person. Chihuly is an American artist known as the pioneer of glass blowing, creating large-scale and colorful works.
After receiving a grant from the Lewisville Education Foundation, Lentz and her students sought out to create their own Chihuly-inspired work. Students created glass-like art with plastics, specialty paints, and other materials.
Throughout their time crafting this artwork, Lentz and her students realized that in a lot of ways life was indeed imitating art. “During COVID we all had to be flexible,” Lentz explained. “We see that in Chihuly’s art-blowing, he twists and shapes glass into something beautiful.”
Ethridge Elementary’s theme for the school year is “Around the World,” and students learned about several cultures throughout their time studying Chihuly. “The flowers they created for this exhibit are all native to different countries,” said Lentz. As the students created these flowers, they learned about the countries associated with them.
Though a tremendous amount of care and consideration has gone into building this exhibit, the same has been given to the breakdown of it. “All leftover materials will be recycled,” Lentz explained. “One of my main principles is to leave things better than you found them. It applies to everything, including [the Earth]. That’s why we recycle the leftover materials.”
This immersive art experience, Transforming Through Chihuly, is now proudly on display at Ethridge Elementary through the end of March.
