The Educational Sketchbook Program® Story
…in a land called Montana, in the U.S.A., there was a school with many teachers. There were Science teachers, Math teachers, English teachers and an Art teacher. The Science, Math and English teachers all had beautiful text books, but not the Art teacher. There was no money left in the budget for her classroom sketch text books.
“I will buy sketchbooks myself.” The Art teacher thought to herself. But on her meager salary she couldn’t afford quality sketchbooks for every student.
She was very creative and thought, “I will have my students make their own sketchbooks in the classroom.” But this took too much precious class time.
So she thought, “I will have my students buy their own sketchbooks!” But because of the disparity it was very difficult to teach her discipline from the vast collection of sketchbooks. Also, the sketchbooks the students purchased were imported from other countries at a time when her country needed the work.
Despaired, she went out for a drive looking for answers, and came across a bindery. She thought, “I will see how much it would be to make our text books at the bindery.” She told the owner of the bindery her dilemma, and to her delight the owner of the bindery was a Fine Arts Major in college. He loved art and understood completely her dilemma! He too understood the importance of sketching and the discipline the arts bring to education.
The artist and bindery owner worked together to create the finest budget-friendly sketchbooks in the land.
The sketchbooks were made “green” and good for the environment. They used the finest paper from the Sustainable Forest Initiative for the pages. The spiral binding was made from recycled material and came in many colors. The front cover was reinforced for durability, and the back cover was rigid, just like a professional artist sketchbook. They were able to produce more of these books affordably too.
The Art teacher was so excited about her classroom sketchbooks — she could finally have her very own classroom sketchbooks for all her students! So she told other Art teachers and soon there were classroom sketchbooks for every level of Art classes. The paper was hot-pressed for a smooth finish, or cold-pressed for “tooth,” a more textured surface. Art teachers could get paper specifically for dry media, oil pastels, chalk, markers and more! And even better, all of the paper and other raw materials to make her classroom sketchbooks were made right in her own country!
She told other teachers about her classroom sketchbooks, and they told other teachers; and soon her sketchbooks were being introduced to every school and museum in America. Finally, Art teachers everywhere could have their very own classroom sketchbooks at an affordable price, that were environmentally responsible, quality constructed, and customizable! Black paper could even be added to a sketchbook, and there were different size options and page counts. Museums liked the custom printed front covers. It was a dream come true.
And so they all taught happily ever after! And that was just The Beginning…