June 14 is Methow Kids’ Free Fishing Day and Methow Valley fifth graders have been carving block prints to commemorate this year’s theme: Fish on the Go/Migrating from Source to Sea and Back Again.

Fishing Day activities at the Winthrop Fish Hatchery include: fishing for big trout, fish cleaning station, rolling river, and concessions, hands-on casting with targets, Smokey Bear, salmon cooking, fly tying, gyotaku, fish art, ethics and boating safety.

Free event!

Partnership blends art and environmental education for interdisciplinary learning

The winning block print design by Phoenix Doran will be featured on t-shirts commemorating the 2014 Methow Kids’ Free Fishing Day. Phoenix is a fifth grade student at Methow Valley Elementary School. Additional designs were chosen to be featured on posters which will be hung throughout the valley. The additional artwork features the designs of the following fifth grade students: Keeley Brooks, Aidan Catlin, Tyler Darwood, Julia Dietz, Destiny Ferreira, Tommy Knox, Stephanie Strong, and Eva Weymuller.

The blockprints were created through an interdisciplinary unit on Methow fish and fish habitat offered to fifth graders in conjunction with National Fishing and Boating Week and with sponsorship from the Methow Valley Ranger District. The theme: FISH ON THE GO/MIGRATING FROM SOURCE TO SEA AND BACK AGAIN, captures  beautiful, complex, and amazing feat of fish migration back into the Methow River all the way from the ocean. In this interdisciplinary unit students first learned about fish and fish habitat in a workshop in their classrooms with local biologists from the US Forest Service. They then sketched images and learned how to carve blocks and print them with local teaching artists, Laura Gunnip and Emily Post. The block prints feature fish and habitat and reflect the student’s knowledge.  There are many outstanding examples of block prints from the last 14 years. Many are featured in a free calendar, Living With the Methow River, produced by the Methow Resource Council and through a collaboration with Methow Arts Alliance.                                  

            

 

This hands-on art residency was brought to students by Methow Arts’ Okanogan Region Arts Education Partnership.  The partnership serves more than 5,200 students and 370 teachers across Okanogan County with arts programs in classrooms in the Omak, Okanogan, Brewster, Bridgeport, Pateros, and Methow School Districts, and in the Paschal Sherman Indian School.

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 The Fishing Day project is a collaboration among Big R, Cascade Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group, Dick Hill Tackle Shop, Friends of Northwest Hatcheries, Methow Arts Alliance, Methow Conservancy, Methow Recycles, Methow Restoration Council, Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation, Methow Valley Fly Fishers, Methow Valley School District, National Endowment for the Arts, Okanogan Conservation District, Okanogan- Wenatchee National Forest, Trout Unlimited, Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board, US Army Corps of Engineers, US Bureau of Reclamation, US Fish & Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State Arts Commission, Washington State Parks, Wild Fish Conservancy, and Yakama Nation.

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INFO: Methow Arts Alliance, 509.997.4004, info@methowartsalliance.org