PEA RIDGE — The Pea Ridge Elementary online art gallery has earned the distinction of being the most all-time visited exhibition of its kind in the state of Arkansas, while also attaining the number three national ranking in the current Artsonia national art competition.

The gallery passed the 160,000 visitor mark over the weekend to surpass the all-time total of the Balk Knob Elementary School, the previous leader of alltime visits since the Web site’s inception seven years ago. The Pea Ridge gallery, christened in March of 2009, has been averaging more than 700 visits a day in the past few weeks to climb to its current total.

The burgeoning art activity has led to the local artists leading the nation in total artwork, with the gallery leading the state in artwork, visitors, statements, comments and fans. The school recently received an award from the Artsonia Corporation declaring the school’s 2009-2010 Web site to be the winner of the 2010 General Excellence award.

Pea Ridge elementary schools art teacher and site manager John McGee has been tapped to speak to the state’s art teachers at the annual Arkansas Art Educators Conference in Little Rock in November.

“I have been asked to talk about our Web site and what having an online presence has done for theart program here at Pea Ridge,” McGee said. “The benefits are almost incalculable for all the good we have realized from it.

Student pride has risen sharply, parental involvement has been great and I have received messages from around the country from folks grateful for having the opportunity of seeing their relatives’/friends’ kid’s artwork.”

McGee uploads student artwork onto the Web site daily. People can sign up as fans of students and are subsequently sent e-mails each time a new artwork arrives on the Web site for viewing.

Anyone wishing to view the Web site need only to log on to www.artsonia.

com/pearidge2.

School, Pages 11 on 10/06/2010