DALTON, Ga. — Giggling, 10-year-old Gaby Duchesne recalled dipping her fingers into the gooey ingredients required to construct make handmade English collages. “We don’t usually do messy things in the classroom,” Gaby said.

“And, we don’t do things from around the world,” she added.

Now on display at Dalton City Hall is Worldwide Playground, a collaboration between Brookwood Elementary School students and the Georgia Council for the Arts.

Professional artists-in-residence have worked with students at every grade level on the yearlong project — studying cultural and artistic traditions from around the planet including those of the Australian Aborigines.

Artist Pamela Beagle-Daresta taught traditional Japanese print-making, having the children use pencils to engrave Styrofoam.

“It’s very magical when you pull the paper away, and there’s this print,” she said.

Ms. Beagle-Daresta — who teaches in schools throughout the state — bemoans dwindling funds for art instruction.

“I do believe what is wrong with our society is that we have forgotten that what makes us unique as human beings is our ability to create,” she said.

The state doesn’t allocate money specifically for arts education, said William Cardoza, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education.

“Individual school systems decide if they want to fund art education, but none of the state money has to go toward it,” he said in an e-mail message.

Still, school budgets in Georgia have been strained, educators say.

Ms. Beagle-Daresta, a longtime teaching artist, said that recently many schools throughout the state just haven’t had the money to bring her in.

“The funding is almost gone for arts in education,” she said. “It’s really, really bad.”

Dalton Public Schools fund the arts through a combination of private and public money, said schools spokeswoman Deanna Farmer.

Some schools have full-time visual arts teachers; others bring in artists-in-residence supported by private money.

The Worldwide Playground was funded mainly by a $7,000 grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts.

There’s no full-time visual arts teacher at Brookwood, and the school’s principal, Will Esters, said the Worldwide Playground project has been an effort to bring more art to the children.

Art plays a vital role in education, he said, particularly in teaching about culture.

But Mr. Esters stressed that Brookwood can’t educate children on its own. City Hall, the Creative Arts Guild and parent volunteers came together for this project.

“The schools belong to the community,” he said. “The classroom has got to extend beyond the walls of the school.”