MUSEUM PUTS ART ON TOUR TO 84 SCHOOLS

As part of its Outreach Program, the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach has launched a traveling exhibit of works titled “Art From the Museum--Western Landscapes.”

More than 30,000 students from kindergarten to 12th grade are expected to view the original landscape paintings and drawings as they travel throughout Orange County school districts. The exhibit started its trek last October and will continue until June.

Museum education specialist Joan Benford organized the program in a joint effort with the Orange County Department of Education. The mobile art show of 13 works was selected from the museum’s “Eucalyptus School” collection and has been made available, free of charge, to 84 schools in Orange County.

“The purpose of this program is to put children in contact with museum-quality work,” said Benford. “It will expose them to things they may never have a chance to see otherwise.”

Marie Clement, coordinator of fine arts for the Orange County Department of Education, called the program “a real new-age way to teach children about art. It’s just fantastic because it avoids having to bus the kids and it allows them to learn without disrupting their class schedules.”

The paintings are displayed for two days at each school. To be eligible for the exhibit, teachers were required to attend an orientation workshop.

Benford, a highly accredited art educator, researched and wrote the orientation materials and directed the workshop for the teachers. In turn, the teachers received slides, historical information and artists’ biographies to take back to their students.

In addition to viewing original art, students are given an opportunity to learn about art history, color theory and design. Then they participate in studio workshops where they can apply their new insights to their own paintings and drawings.

“We want to turn them on and excite them by the creative process,” explained William Otton, Laguna Beach museum director. “Art museums have a lot of competition now with video and other forms of entertainment. This is one way we can take art out of a cloister and make it part of everyday life.”

Otton said he was overwhelmed by the initial response from the teaching community. About 20 teachers were expected to sign up for the requisite workshop, but 100 enrolled.

The exhibit also met with generous financial backing. Benford said she hopes the enthusiasm for this project will enable the museum to obtain funding to continue the project for another five years on a budget of $5,000 to $6,000 per year. The “Western Landscapes” show was financed primarily by contributions from Thomas and Elizabeth Tierney, Dr. and Mrs. Ronald Miller and Mr. and Mrs. Stan Chapman.

The paintings in the “Western Landscapes” exhibit were chosen from the museum’s collection of “Eucalyptus School” paintings and drawings, created by Southland artists during the early 20th Century. Many of the artists painted plein-air, that is on-site renderings of the mountains, streams and beaches around Laguna Beach. The works provide a historical, but familiar view of Southern California.

Although Orange County was still primarily an agricultural and resort area during the early 1900s, Laguna Beach had already begun distinguishing itself as an art community and attracting artists from the East and the Midwest. They came to paint the undeveloped landscapes and enjoy the mild climate. Many of the artists eventually moved West on a permanent basis and bought property around Laguna Beach.

Among the noted artists represented in the exhibit is Frank Cuprien (1891-1948), a Brooklyn native who lived on Catalina Island until 1913, when he moved to a house one mile south of the Hotel Laguna. The Pacific Coast Highway was still a two-lane dirt road. Cuprien lived without electricity atop a bluff, which was the vantage point for many of his plein-air paintings. Among them is “Trees by the Beach,” a rendering of his ocean view, obscured only by eucalyptus tees and grass-strewn bluffs.

Other artists represented in the “Western Landscapes” exhibit include Dana Bartlett, Conrad Buff, Priscilla Jane Frazer, Ben Kutcher, Edgar Payne, Frances Upson Young and Virginia Wooley.

Most of the “Western Landscapes” paintings were contributed by their creators to the Laguna Beach Art Assn. founded in 1918. In 1972, the association was reorganized as the Laguna Beach Museum of Art and moved into its seaside location at 307 Cliff Drive. The facility will reopen under the name Laguna Art Museum.