The George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts visits Mary Chapa in Greenfield

Mary Chapa Academy in Greenfield  received a special visit on Friday, October 24, from Jacques Rodrigue and a team from the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts.

The foundation was formed in 2009 by the famed Louisiana artist better known for his images of the Blue Dog.

After a tour of the school, Rodrigue presented students with an overview of works of George Rodrigue and led them through a morning of creativity. Students painted their Blue Dog in any setting in the world that they could possibly imagine.

On Saturday, the foundation sponsored a Family Day at the Rodrigue Gallery in Carmel, where a team led students and their parents in creating Blue Dog ornaments, masks, face painting and a tour of the gallery.

The visit concluded Monday with a field-trip for all fifth grade students to Carmel, where they were led through arts integrated science projects.

In May, El Camino Real Academy in the Greenfield Union School District was selected as one of 10 schools in California for the Turnaround Arts program, a signature of the Obama administration that uses arts to helps narrow the achievement gap.

El Camino Real, which was originally split from Mary Chapa in 2011 as part of reforms aimed at increasing test score, was merged again with Mary Chapa this summer. Mary Chapa gets to keep the turnaround arts designation, principal Sonia Aramburo said.  

As part of the program, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers will "adopt" Mary Chapa to engage with the students and motivate them to learn. One of these days he'll come visit. We can hardly wait...