As defined by the Kennedy Center, arts integration is "an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process which connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both" (Silverstein & Layne, 2010). In arts integrated lessons, students simultaneously learn content in a form of art and in another subject area. They can then demonstrate their new understanding through the art. Arts integration has been shown to improve learning for elementary students in many different studies in the last couple of decades (Melnick, Witmer, & Strickland, 2011; Rose, Androes, Parks, & McMahon, 2001; Southgate & Roscigno, 2009; Thomas & Arnold, 2011). The authors have both personally seen arts integration excite students, deepen their understandings, and even help with classroom management issues. They would love to see more elementary teachers and art specialists integrate their curricula, but recognize that there are some inherent challenges that make this difficult. Despite systemic challenges, they have developed a model for collaboration that works for us, that we are excited to share. This article examines real and perceived divides between university and classroom teaching. It also looks at real and perceived divides between general education and visual arts education. The authors describe their collaboration, how they navigated the divide between their jobs and disciplines by combining the second author's intensive knowledge and experience with 4th-grade curriculum and first author's visual art expertise to create an integrated lesson plan that they could share with other teachers. It also discusses the benefits of their collaborative model of visual arts integration between an elementary school teacher and university professor.