Pea Ridge's elementary online art gallery recently added its 100,000th work of art to its five-year collection of art done by students from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Fourth-grader Rylea Marler's tempera painting of a barn was the 100,000th picture uploaded to the Pea Ridge gallery hosted by the Artsonia Corporation. The online gallery was begun in March of 2009.
The online gallery is currently the No. 4 ranked website among the 6,000 schools nationwide and has been the top-ranked site in Arkansas for the past four years. Nearly 370,000 people have visited the gallery since its inception.
Rankings are based on points earned by the school in a variety of venues. Pea Ridge currently leads the nation this year in art uploaded (over 14,000), and is No. 2 nationally in student participation describing their artwork online. Parents and fans comment contribution is second best in the USA with the number of fans signed on to the Pea Ridge website ranked in the No. 5 position.
The elementary students will be entering a variety of art exhibition and competitions this spring and they have also received an invitation by the Gilcrease Museum of American Art in Tulsa, Okla., to put on an exhibition of art in their museum this summer.
Eighty-five local students have earned the Artsonia Hall of Fame Award, an honor that is awarded when any student has five artworks on display, has five registered fans as well as a parent registration, and has attracted five comments from family and friends. There is no cost to register or participate.
Each year, fifth-grade Hall of Fame students make a trip to Tulsa in May to take guided tours of the Gilcrease and Philbrook Museums of Art. Plans are being formulated to take third- and fourth-grade Hall of Famers to the Wooloroc Museum in Oklahoma this spring. Trips are planned this summer to the Crystal Bridges Museum as well.
Pea Ridge art teacher John McGee has been named by the Artsonia Corporation as the Artsonia mentor for northwest Arkansas, southwest Missouri and northeast Oklahoma. He will be charged with helping interested schools get an online art gallery up and running, contacting teachers and offering them help and guidance.
"Artsonia has been the greatest tool I have ever come across in my 38-year teaching career," McGee said. "It has greatly improved student pride in the work they do and has done such a great job in connecting students with their families through their art."
"I would really like to climb just a little more in the rankings, maybe even to the No. 1 position. Of course, this is something the kids and I can't do by ourselves. We get points every time a person registers as a fan or when family and friends post online comments. Our current No. 5 ranking is due to the great parental and community support we have received thus far. The more the community gets involved, the greater our chances."
Anyone wanting to visit the online gallery, perhaps make a comment or two or sign on as a fan need only log on to www.artsonia.com/pearidge2.
Community on 02/05/2014