Ogden Nature Center had a problem. They built a beautiful state-of-the-art education center with large windows to keep the space bright and airy. Unable to recognize the difference between glass and air, birds were striking the windows with troubling regularity. Something was needed to warn the birds. But what?

Enter Weber State University’s Arts Learning Collaborative.

Led by director Tamara Goldbogen and based on guiding principles provided by the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program — a statewide elementary arts integration program — a team of educators and community members came together to solve this problem. Their solution was to work with area elementary students, who would create faux stained-glass installations to hang on the windows at the education center.

Starting in 2020 and continuing through 2024, elementary students would come to the Ogden Nature Center to learn about Utah’s birds and their habitats, which they then depicted on large, colorful faux stained-glass medallions. Meanwhile, WSU students, studying in the Creative Processes in the Elementary Classroom and Murals with a Mission: Art & Community Collaboration courses, learn how to integrate art into all curricular areas, explore public art and create faux stained-glass nameplates to accompany the elementary students’ work.

The collaboration has been a stunning success. The installation adds beauty to the education center and has led to a significant decrease in bird strikes. At GreenWood Charter School, the most recent elementary school partner, students have learned more about the state’s flora and fauna, and feel a sense of pride in their artistic contribution and their conservation efforts. Weber State students have additional tools in their tool belt to help learning come alive through the integration of hands-on art projects.

The Utah Habitats: Birds & Plants project is just one example of the innovation and collaboration that mark arts education at Weber State. Faculty, staff and students look for opportunities to engage students and the community in the arts in myriad ways.

This fall saw the performance of a bilingual production of Shakespeare’s “A Winter’s Tale” performed outdoors at the Dumke Arts Plaza.

WSU dance students and faculty organized the “Day of Dance,” which brings together over 100 students from nine high school dance programs to perform for close to 1,000 elementary students and community members.

WSU piano and string players teach young children the fundamentals of their instruments through our acclaimed String Project and Piano Prep program.

Ogden High School students visited WSU this spring to work with our creative writing faculty and to learn about putting together a literary magazine.

Interns for the Arts Learning Collaborative work with elementary school students, finding new ways to help learning come alive. As one intern said, “Seeing that you can create movement activities from books helped open the door of possibility for things you can do to integrate art into the classroom.”

The financial reallocations required by House Bill 265 challenged us to streamline our educational offerings in WSU’s Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities. We combined some of our programs and eliminated a few options. While these cuts are difficult, we are keeping the needs of our students and our community at the forefront as we develop their talents as artists, performers and teachers.

The arts-integrated teaching model developed through the work of Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program has affected legions of children across Utah and inspires us to find more opportunities to collaborate and to highlight the power of art. We couldn’t agree more with Lydia Stewart, a BTS Arts Educator at GreenWood Charter, who said of the Utah Habitats project, “Art can be a powerful tool for change. This kind of project is doing that, making better kids, making better teachers, and making a better world by teaching us to take care of it in a better way.”

Deborah Uman is Dean of the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities at Weber State University. A Renaissance scholar, she has taught classes on Shakespeare and British literature, as well as dystopian fiction and fairy tales. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent the institutional values or positions of the university.