Over the past few years, first La Honda, then Pescadero and Kings Mountain elementary schools, have introduced Art in Action, a Menlo Park-based, nonprofit program dedicated to bringing art and artists from around the world and through history, back into the classroom.
Through training for parents and volunteers working in tandem with regular teachers, and by providing age-appropriate lessons and materials for classes that fit into each school's schedule and curriculum, the hands-on program is taking shape on the coast.
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Emma Beckman and Rachel Sewart draw together Thursday at Kings Mountain Elementary School. The school is in its first year of participation in the Menlo Park-based program known as Art in Action. |
"It ties in with what they're learning," said Gretchen Ross, Kings Mountain Elementary School site director. "It's giving them a background in how to look at the world through the arts. It's valuable for them as they become adults. It has an impact on academics for our children."
Ross joins Linda Mobraten, Art in Action site coordinator for Kings Mountain, Helena Pisani, site coordinator for Pescadero Elementary School, and Maile Springer, coordinator for La Honda Elementary, in administering the program. They range from new to Art in Action - this is Kings Mountain's first year - to old pros. La Honda Elementary students have been participating for five years now.
The work of all their students will be exhibited in a month-long show at the Half Moon Bay Library starting this week.
In existence for 25 years, Art in Action is currently used in about 60 Bay Area Schools. Staff are talking with other local schools, particularly Hatch Elementary, about broadening it on the coast, said program director Betsy Halaby.
"We realize how important it is for children to be roundly educated," she said. "More and more Coastside schools are looking into arts programs in general, and we are the one parents are familiar with."
"It's fun. Something to look forward to," said Springer's daughter Marci, a fourth-grader at La Honda Elementary. Involved with the program since kindergarten, she is now savvy with painting, drawing, sculpture, charcoal, famous artists and advanced techniques.
The program is "three-pronged: art appreciation, art history, techniques," said Halaby.
The schools' Art in Action coordinators, parents and community volunteers go through extensive training with Art in Action staff. Then they and regular teachers determine how, when and where to implement the lessons.
"It's a community effort," Ross said.
The lessons are age-appropriate but flexible. "You could have taken (a lesson for) kindergarten and taught fourth-grade, the way it's outlined," said Mobraten.
Funded through the California Department of Education, structured according to state guidelines for kindergarteners through eighth-graders, the program brought a wide palette of art experiences this year to participating schools
At La Honda, Springer said she liked how her students "apply what they've learned to create art." For example, kindergarteners studied Dutch master Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) and then made their own interpretations of a sunflower. Older students had a lesson on perspective and French painter Paul Cezanne (1839-1906).
The kids worked with many media, including collage, pastels, painting, colored pencil, textiles and weaving.
"I think it does a couple of things," she said. "It introduces them to art, in today's world when they're pushing math and reading and getting ready for STAR scores. It also relieves the teacher from creating an art curriculum. And they just have fun."
In Pescadero, Pisani worked with a teacher with first- and second-graders and another coordinator with third- and fourth-graders. They covered abstract art and Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) and then worked on collage. Then they studied French tapestry and did weaving. "They did a good job, those little guys," she said.
Finally they studied French primitive painter Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) and worked on three-dimensional projects with paper and drawing.
"They love it," Pisani said. "Every time they see me, it's, 'Do we have art today?'"
She added that art struck a chord with the school's Spanish-speaking students. "It gives them an outlet to shine," she said. "I'm amazed at how their artistic side comes out. A kid may be a little wiggly (academically) but can be artistic when it comes to this."
"They're learning some culture as well as the standard curriculum," said McKeon.
At Kings Mountain, Mobraten and 13 volunteer parents and teachers led lessons in impressionism and color blending, and lines and perspective, with fourth- and fifth-graders.
They learned about the role light and emotional impact play in art, she said. The helpers prompted the kids with questions such as, "What do you think this painter was feeling? What do you think the expression is on his face?"
"I think (students) love being able to express themselves with their hands, learning how to be more effective," she said. "And you have the connection between the person and the artwork and how to do something like that."
The kids take home what they learn - at least, in her household, she said. Her first-grade daughter Marla used to bring home painting projects that were dark because all the paint ran together until she learned blending. And her fourth-grade son, Tyler, showed her a painting and pinned her with a question.
"He said, 'Mom, do you think the light is shining on it from the upper right?'
"And I looked at it and said, 'Yes, I think it is' and we looked at how the artist was using color," she said. "They're definitely learning. It's an amazing program."
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