With a few quick staples, Mary Fair Whitlatch helped another art teacher cover one wall of the Natrona County Public Library with construction paper. The teddy bears, made by kindergarten art students, wore brightly colored cardboard overalls and happy smiles.

"I think in our society, art has an intrinsic value," said Whitlatch, who teaches art at Verda James Elementary and for Alcova and Red Creek students. "We don't feel like we have to justify it."

Elementary art teachers and parents spent Wednesday hanging student art work on every available surface the public library offered. Portraits, paintings and drawings lined the walls, hung from the ceiling and wrapped around poles.

In a few short hours, the library was nearly ready for the opening of this year's Natrona County School District Elementary Art Show.

Art is on display today through May 8.

Creating art is much more than just an hour of fun for students, teachers said. Students who struggle in school can find personal success in paintbrushes or pastels.

"It just opens doors and windows," said Jodi Davis, who teaches art at Pineview and Willard elementary schools. "Some kids, that's the only reason they go to school."

Teachers said art also gives students an outlet for solving problems creatively and for pushing their critical thinking to a higher level. Filling a blank sheet of paper with color encourages students to find various ways to do so, and enhances their ability to problem solve.

"Research shows that when you have art in an elementary classroom, all other skills are enhanced," Davis said.

Whitlatch said academic subjects, as well as personal development, are encompassed in what students learn during their art time.

"(Art) is instrumental in teaching other things," Whitlatch said. "Hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, observational skills. We teach things that apply to other subjects, especially math."

Hank Washut, an art teacher at Fort Caspar Academy and Manor Heights, said all teachers follow four curriculum standards set by the art program. The standards basically require students to produce art, learn about its aesthetic value, art's place in history and its context in different cultures.

But students also learn to apply their developing likes and dislikes to modern day art, whether it's the design of a Web site or the graphics in a video game.

"We're in a visual culture," Washut said. "Art surrounds us. It's in our architecture, it's in our clothes. Art just engulfs us."

Reach Jasa Santos at (307) 266-0593 or at Jasa.Santos@trib.com.