Arts education as vital as ever

FLO MARTIN

On Wednesday, the Daily Pilot featured a story called “Students

captured acting up.” One of the accompanying photos showed three

teenagers watching in awe as one of the instructors in the South

Coast Repertory “Express Yourself” summer arts program stood facing

them with his arms outstretched sideways. Wonderful memories of a

similar scene I witnessed in 1976 came flooding back.

As a teacher at that time for the state-funded MGM (Mentally

Gifted Minors) program at Sonora School, I jumped at the

opportunities that the South Coast Repertory outreach program offered

to local schools. The Sonora event featured Ron Boussom, a SCR

founding member. Ron showed up in my library media center and shared

his enthusiasm for mime and face paint with about 30 giggling,

excited kids who squealed in delight at his wonderfully expressive

face and his hilarious antics.

More recently, while teaching high school French in Garden Grove,

I pitched another South Coast offering for young people: discount

tickets for educators and their students. Every other year, SCR

presents a traditional French classic. Consequently, my students and

I became repertory regulars. So many of these kids loved the theater

experience. So many told me that they would never have thought of

going to the theater on their own. So many had never even stepped

inside a theater before. And yet, so many of them, together with

hundreds of other students and teachers from other Orange County

schools, howled their way through “School for Wives,” “Cyrano de

Bergerac,” and “The Imaginary Invalid,” just to name a few.

Young people need beauty in their life. They all need art on a

regular basis. They all need music. They all need drama. And I mean

all, not just a select few who have the funds to cover the hefty

price tag attached to two weeks in an acting seminar. Thank God for

SCR organizational sponsors such as the Mika Community Development.

Where would our kids be without our support? What public funding

do our local schools have to sustain the visual and performing arts?

How many students in the Newport-Mesa School District enjoy music,

art and theater classes? How many participate in related

extracurricular activities: band competitions, school plays, mock

trial, Model United Nations, photography club? How about field trips

to the Getty or the Norton Simon or the Los Angeles County Art

museums? Here are some of the answers I found:

First, from California Arts Council: In 2001-02, the council

expanded its arts-in-education programs, and brought artists and

community arts resources into partnership with public schools. Funded

with a $10 million initiative, the council’s goal, like that of its

partners -- the California Department of Education, the California

Alliance for Arts Education, the California Arts Project and the

California PTA -- was to establish arts education in all schools in

the state. Arts education offerings in schools multiplied in every

region of the state. But because of the 2003-04 state budget cuts,

which reduced the council’s budget by almost 90%, the California Arts

Council no longer funds these programs.

Second, the Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union’s 2004

Education Foundation provided grants to 11 literacy, six math, three

science, one gardening, and one learning-mode program. Not one single

arts program made the cut.

Sigh ...

Third, due to the Back to the Basics movement in California, many

fine arts programs are shrinking. Students simply don’t have time in

their curriculum for such “frills.” Any high school counselor will

verify this. So, what can we do to help out? On Monday, I heard

former President Clinton talk about the $5,000 tax refund he received

a few years back. I wondered: “What did you do with that money? Did

you stick it in the bank? Did you buy another toy? Did you give it to

your church or to a nonprofit service organization? Did you give it

to your local school?”

This writer sure did. She wrote out a check equaling her refund

(definitely not $5,000, though) to the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District, with a memo “for Costa Mesa High” and walked the check over

to the school. This writer also hired the jazz band from a local high

school to play for a party at her home. She once paid hard cash for a

Garfield papier-mache creation hanging in a high school display

window. Was the artist ever thrilled, not to mention the art teacher?

This writer is not patting herself on the back but simply putting

forward a few ideas on how to share a love of the arts with the

younger generation. Now, dear reader, the ball is in your court.

* FLO MARTIN is a Costa Mesa resident and faculty member at Cal

State Fullerton.