Greetings from the Coolidge art studio!  As we enter the 2023-2024 school year, I enthusiastically look forward to a wonderful year of teaching, learning about, and creating art with your child.  My name is Kellie Stark.   I am a 16th-year art teacher in Livonia and this will be my 14th year coming back to teach art at Coolidge.   I have studied and earned a B.A. in K-12 art education from Wayne State and a Master’s degree in Special Education and Autism Spectrum Disorders from Madonna University.   I love learning new things and take great joy in spreading this love of learning to all my students.

           I strive to make art class a fun and exciting experience every week.  I also believe art education is essential for developing the whole child and providing a well-rounded and complete education.   Students are faced with many creative challenges in the art room that cannot be found in any other subject area, such as critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and visual-spatial thinking skills.  Young children develop fine and gross motor skills and develop an early love and appreciation for humanities and fine art.   I also believe reading and writing are two of the most important skills taught in elementary and should be used as much as possible.   In art class, this year, all first through fourth-grade students will keep a personal sketchbook or art journal throughout the school year, in which ideas will be jotted down, brainstorming will take place, and students will use it to make sketches and learning statements about the artistic process they will be working through with each project they tackle.   Students will experience a variety of art subjects, techniques, and media, such as painting, ceramics, and drawing, just to name a few!