Olympic Artist Trading Cards

Olympic Artist Trading Cards
Right - Emily361
Left - Patrick185

At the beginning of this school year I saw a Call for Participation that invited teachers and students to take part in the Olympic ATC Exchange - an international exchange of artist trading cards created to celebrate the "Olympic spirit." Artist Trading Cards, also referred to as ATCs, are miniature works of art, usually done on card stock, that are traded between artists. They can be about anything and made with any media, materials, or techniques. They can be produced as one-of-a-kind originals, in limited editions, or in a series based on a particular theme or subject. It’s all up to the individual artist.

Since I had never participated in anything like this before we tried it with just one 5th grade, Ms. Linstra's Class. So, between December and January we work on our Olympic Inspired ATCs in Art Class. The theme of the exchange was “The Olympic Spirit,” which describes 5 traits — Friendship, Honor, Peace, Glory, and Fair Play. Each ATC made for the exchange expressed or represented one of these five traits. In addition, the five traits were matched up with one of the colors of the Olympic Rings.

All of the ATCs created for this trade are published on the Mount Prospect Artsonia Gallery. Each student selected 1 or 2 cards that they wanted to swap and they were sent to Professor Craig Roland at the University of Florida. He collected and redistributed the cards to the participating schools. Just last week I received a box of Olympic ATCs to be distributed to our student's in Ms. Linstra's class -- needless to say they were thrilled!

To commemorate the exchange and to showcase the variety of ideas and media that have been used for the project, 52 cards from schools participating in the Olympic ATC Exchange were chosen to form a "Gallery Deck." Congratulations to Emily361 & Patrick185 who both had a card selected for the Gallery Deck!

To read more about this project and see the "Gallery Deck - CLICK HERE! Olympic Artist Trading Card Press Release

Thank you and congratulations to all the students who participated in this exciting exchange! We will do this again!