Of course all of this is fueling my fire as far as why I am so concerned about the lack of creativity (I’m not even going to call it “art” anymore!) in our public school education -especially here in the LBUSD.
Of course, this mostly falls on deaf ears, gets lip service and leaves me preaching to the choir while tilting towards windmills… so to speak. In the coming months while parents and children suffer the stresses of our credit weary, eco-abusive, politically compromised society, we will need to find ways to combat these stresses on our own and work our way through the morass we have created moving toward the light of a better tomorrow.

In the meantime, Penny and I visited Trash for Teaching the other day and hauled away some fabulous stuff for our soon to be announced free public workshop at the local Dana Branch Library. We purchased a membership ($50 each-$100) and as members we can weigh out as many pounds of their materials as we can use in a year! Hooray!
Lauri from Trash for Teaching tells me if you have a school that you would like to purchase a membership for, it is completely tax deductible and makes a great holiday gift. Even if you aren’t connected to a school, any donation you give them will be put to great use, both for education and for the environment. I have been there- it is a bare bones operation with a small passionate staff.
Also, our donate page has been reactivated and updated. (sorry we don’t have 501C3 status and aren’t tax deductible:-))

We have met with the librarian, Jennifer, settled on the basic format, and agreed to a “take it as it comes” approach and will make adjustments as needed. Our first workshop is on January 24, 2009 and the press release will go something like this:

Elementary Art is coming to the Dana Branch Library!

Dana Branch Library
3680 Atlantic Ave
Long Beach, CA 90807
(562) 570-1042

All this has taken up far more time than I had allotted and I must get back to Shibori Girl and make a dime or two today. Many thanks to those of you who follow both blogs and especially those of you who are purchasing my work as holiday gifts and what not. It IS what pays the bills around here! Your patronage is warmly appreciated.

Here’s one I found in Ft. Lauderdale FL-

Still wanting to bring art to elementary age kids,but how?

Still wanting to be true to my beliefs about why I like to do it in a public school classroom.

I like the public school setting in that it allows for a more equitable distribution of the subject matter (as opposed to kids who get art classes outside of school for a price). Not everyone can afford to attend those kind of classes. I also like to see art offered alongside the core classes of math, reading, and social studies as opposed to seeing it always offered as an “extra”. It means something different.

But alas, one cannot always have what one wants. So rather than force the issue, I decided to let it rest and see what came to me.

Here’s what has been offered- regular workshop space at the local library’s community room on Saturday mornings at the Dana Branch Library, Long Beach. We provide the lessons, gather materials, & donate our time. The library provides the space, a teeny weeny budget (for filling their display cases with art), and hopefully some storage space for materials.

So now Penny & I have spent some time thinking about how to structure it. We are not interested in a babysitting/drop off/drop in situation. We want there to be a complete lesson offered each time followed by hands on working/studio time. We want to limit the minimum age to 9 years old. Here’s what we are thinking:

-two Saturday morning workshops a month (starting this December and probably only one this first month) Each month we will explore one theme or genre.
-the class starts at 10 AM sharp. no late comers. 30 minute oral/visual presentation followed by an hour of hands on art making.
-at 11:30 (until 12:30) we will open the doors to drop ins who can take advantage of the set-up and materials to explore the topic on hand.
-any students who were there for the formal class will be invited to continue working and teach/ share
alongside the newcomers thereby further enhancing their experience and that of the drop ins.
-this will be free but donations for materials will be greatly appreciated.
-we will plan the year in advance as we did for the classroom and due to my travel/teaching/show schedule we may invite some other working guest artists to come and visit/teach with us.

Well, that’s the idea so far. Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome. We are filling out the paperwork required by the city and will hand it over to the librarian this week. She will approve it for co-sponsorship so as to bypass any fees etc.. Hope to get started after the Thanksgiving break.

Until I have a little more time to write up part two on the Houston show post, i thought i’d share this link to a trailer for the film “Who Does She Think She Is?” now circulating to limited screenings. I would like to see this film in my area. You can visit their blog here. Ask to have a screening in your area.

Now I assume that many of the readers here CAN name 5 female artists. But did you know that 80% of the students at the School of Visual Arts but that 70-80% of artists represented in museums are male?

The article states:

“The $2 million Broad (rhymes with “road”) Prize is an annual award that honors large urban school districts that demonstrate the strongest student achievement and improvement in America while narrowing achievement gaps between income and ethnic groups. The money goes directly to graduating high school seniors for college scholarships: $1 million to students in the winning district and $250,000 to students in each finalist district. The winner was selected by a jury of 10 prominent American leaders
from government, education, business and civic sectors, including two former U.S. secretaries of education from both parties. “

Now don’t get me wrong, I like money as much as the next guy and agree that it is a fine thing to improve education across all ethnic and socio-economic groups. I guess that I continue to stubbornly believe that testing the daylights out of the kids and teaching to these tests in order to get “good grades” to submit to win these prizes isn’t worth eliminating art in order to win.
That’s just me, though.