{"id":11017,"date":"2010-03-19T12:20:53","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T19:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=11017"},"modified":"2020-11-19T12:26:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T20:26:28","slug":"igniting-a-love-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=11017","title":{"rendered":"Igniting a Love of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Originally<\/a>

Originally published in the spring 2010 issue of Santa Barbara SEASONS magazine.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe arts support learning in\u00a0academic subject areas by helping\u00a0children develop higher-level\u00a0thinking skills like imagination,\u00a0problem solving and collaboration.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2014Kathy Koury<\/strong><\/p>\n

VISITORS COME FROM far and wide to feast\u00a0their eyes on the beautiful chalk creations that\u00a0come to life at I Madonnari<\/a>, the Italian street\u00a0painting festival held each Memorial Day
\nweekend at Santa Barbara Mission. But not all are\u00a0aware that this signature event is the primary\u00a0fundraiser for Children\u2019s Creative Project (CCP)<\/a>,\u00a0Santa Barbara County Education Office\u2019s\u00a0nonprofit arts education program.<\/p>\n

From its humble beginnings in 1972 as a\u00a0volunteer-led after-school art program at Franklin
\nElementary, each school year CCP\u00a0now provides more than 60,000 students in 110\u00a0schools in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo\u00a0counties with performances by touring artists\u00a0and another 30,000 students with resident artist\u00a0workshops and hands-on instruction.<\/p>\n

\"Originally<\/a>

Originally published in the spring 2010 issue of Santa Barbara SEASONS magazine.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really important\u00a0<\/b>to me is that these world class\u00a0<\/b>performers are made\u00a0<\/b>available to the kids and\u00a0<\/b>that they get to have a real\u00a0<\/b>theater experience.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dian Pulverman<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a unique partnership that brings young people together\u00a0with professional artists, who band together with educators\u00a0through public support, grants and fundraising from a variety\u00a0of sources to offer students an array of art experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people to appreciate that it\u2019s important for children\u00a0to experience the joy and inspiration that you can find working\u00a0in the arts or seeing professional artists perform,\u201d says Kathy\u00a0Koury, a former dancer who was one of the original volunteers\u00a0teaching at Franklin in the 1970s and has stayed involved with\u00a0CCP since its formal inception as a nonprofit in 1974, taking\u00a0over as executive director in 1977.<\/p>\n

Koury is modest about her accomplishments, crediting much\u00a0of the program\u2019s success to the support of William J. Cirone,\u00a0Superintendent, Santa Barbara County Education Office. She\u00a0will, however, admit with some pride that since 1981, in collaboration\u00a0with UCSB Arts & Lectures and Santa Barbara Bowl\u00a0Foundation Education Outreach, CCP has produced major performance\u00a0events for local children every school year. For\u00a0example, last fall approximately 5,500 children saw the Yamato\u00a0Wadaiko Drummers of Japan perform at Santa Barbara Bowl,\u00a0and during the 2008\/09 school year, Alvin Ailey American\u00a0Dance Theater performed at Arlington Theatre for thousands\u00a0of assembled school children. This is often the students\u2019 first\u00a0exposure to a live professional performance in a quality venue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my dream to bring Wynton Marsalis and Lincoln\u00a0Center Jazz Orchestra to Santa Barbara,\u201d says Koury, who did so\u00a0in 2002. \u201c(He is) so great in the way he communicates with\u00a0children about music. He can break it down into some of its\u00a0basic elements and has such an interesting way of doing that by\u00a0bringing in music history and using his orchestra to illustrate\u00a0the points he is trying to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Originally<\/a>

Originally published in the spring 2010 issue of Santa Barbara SEASONS magazine.<\/p><\/div>\n

Other notable performances include Valerie Huston Dance\u00a0Theater, Soweto Street Beat, Bella Lewitzky Dance Company,\u00a0Korean Classical Music and Dance Company, Claddagh Dance\u00a0Company, Mariachi Festival and Jane Goodall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really important to me is that these world-class\u00a0performers are made available to the kids and that they get to\u00a0have a real theater experience,\u201d says Board Vice President Dian\u00a0Pulverman, who works year-round to plan I Madonnari, along\u00a0with Board President Phil Morreale; staff members Koury, Diane\u00a0Elsner, Lisa Soldo and Marilyn Zellet; and board members Karyn\u00a0Yule, Micheline Hughes, Tracy Beard, Beverly Clay, Jan\u00a0Clevinger, Cynthia DiMatteo, Maura Harding, Bryan Kerner,\u00a0Kristen Nostrand, Christi Vior and Robin Yardi.<\/p>\n

Prior to joining the board in 2004, Pulverman was part of\u00a0CCP\u2019s Cultural Arts Network, where representatives from local\u00a0schools (primarily parent volunteers) meet to coordinate performances,\u00a0plan assemblies and decide on traveling artists. CCP does\u00a0much of the advance legwork, screening hundreds of different\u00a0touring groups, pre-negotiating fees and providing an arts catalog\u00a0of 180 different touring groups that offer educational and cultural\u00a0performances and often provide study guides to tie their performances into the curriculum. Schools then work together to\u00a0\u201cblock book\u201d discounted performances, which are further discounted\u00a0by an \u201carts credit\u201d that each public school receives\u00a0annually from CCP.<\/p>\n

CCP also produces a touring artist showcase onstage at Crane\u00a0School, where artists are invited to perform short demonstrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe showcase was a fabulous way for us to be introduced to the\u00a0schools in the Santa Barbara area,\u201d says Phil Gold, a member of\u00a0The Perfect Gentlemen, a vocal quartet. \u201cThe theater was just\u00a0the right size, allowing the artists to make eye contact with\u00a0people in the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only do local children benefit, but artists ranging from\u00a0BOXTALES, State Street Ballet, Abalaye African Dance Ensemble,\u00a0Konrad Kono and Dancing Drum to Santa Barbara Symphony,\u00a0VocalPoint, PCPA and Branden Aroyan also gain from their connection\u00a0to CCP.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of our mission is to provide work for artists,\u201d\u00a0says Koury. \u201cThe way we look at it is we try to hire professional\u00a0artists so they have their own career as professional artists but\u00a0then part-time they can teach and interact with children.\u201d<\/p>\n

With financial support from CCP, these artists work in residence\u00a0teaching in classrooms (this part of the program is coordinated\u00a0by Shelley Triggs), perform at assemblies and, in the case of\u00a0storyteller Michael Katz, do both. Katz has been affiliated with\u00a0CCP for decades, beginning with teaching juggling at Open\u00a0Alternative School. He now works with about 20 local elementary\u00a0schools each year. \u201cIt\u2019s really quite remarkable,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cEvery kid in the school basically knows\u00a0who I am, which is a really beautiful\u00a0aspect\u2014that kids become so familiar, they\u00a0grow up believing that a storyteller is\u00a0part of a school. That will be something\u00a0that, as adults, they will value\u2014a person\u00a0who tells a good story is valuable and the\u00a0lessons in stories are valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an artist in residence, he works in\u00a0classrooms for about four days at a time.\u00a0\u201cEach kid will get up in front of the class\u00a0at least once\u2014for some classrooms, what\u00a0they really need to learn about is listening,\u00a0and in another classroom, it\u2019s about\u00a0vocal projection, and in another classroom,\u00a0it may be shyness about physical\u00a0movement,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Anything to do with art is \u201ca very\u00a0positive time in a child\u2019s school day. It\u00a0encourages them to come to school, to\u00a0stay in school, and it\u2019s non-judgmental.\u00a0It\u2019s an area where they can excel when\u00a0they might not excel in some academic\u00a0area,\u201d explains Koury. \u201cPlus the arts
\nsupport learning in academic subject\u00a0areas and help children develop higher level\u00a0thinking skills like imagination,\u00a0problem solving, sequencing patterns,\u00a0reflection and revision, and collaboration.\u00a0These are incredibly important life\u00a0skills, and they are so easily learned and
\nexperienced\u2014children learn these by\u00a0doing the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Santa<\/a>Originally published in the spring 2010 issue of Santa Barbara Seasons Magazine.<\/p>\n

To read the story as it originally appeared in print click here: Spring 2010 childrens creative project<\/a><\/p>\n

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