Amber Lobaugh

Lobaugh’s winning program, “Art History,” expands the current visual arts program into an art history course for students at Fort Gibson High School. The program will be devoted to the academic study of Western art history with the hopes of eventually developing the course into an advanced placement art history course. This would provide students with the opportunity to acquire a fine arts credit and prepare for general education studies in the area of liberal arts. The program differs from traditional studio courses because it will be based on incorporating cross-curricular subjects such as language arts, social studies and science. This will help students make real-world connections through a variety of areas. The course will serve as a survey of Western art history from prehistoric art to contemporary arts. Participating students will have the opportunity to select a variety of projects they find interesting for independent study. For example, students who are interested in prehistoric art can choose from projects such as creating their own cave art to exploring technologies used in the discovery of caves. Lobaugh, who lives in Broken Arrow, hopes the independent and personalized studies will help students become more resourceful and independent thinkers.