PICASSO HELPS : PUPILS FIND WISE WAY TO DRAW OWLS

For second-grade pupils at Andersen Elementary School in Newport Beach, drawing an owl was not a simple matter of putting pen to paper.

First, guest instructor Yvonne Christ gave her charges a primer in the elements of art design: lines, circles, spirals and triangles. Next, students were shown how Picasso put such elements together in his famous, highly stylized owl drawings. Finally, after some further discussion, the schoolchildren were set free to make their own creations.

Christ’s deliberate approach to art instruction is a departure from the course taken in many elementary schools, where “art” is a rainy day activity with students getting little or no direction. As a teacher for “Artists in Classrooms,” a program sponsored by the Laguna Beach-based Art Institute of Southern California, Christ adopts a sequential approach that seeks to progressively build art skills and vocabulary in grade-school students.

“We want to bring them up to another level every time we see them,” Christ explained. “You can’t just go in and say, ‘Draw an owl.’ You have to set the stage.”

Last year, “Artists in Classrooms” visited 400 Orange County classrooms, and 300 classroom visits have been scheduled so far for the current school year.

Four instructors, with backgrounds that combine expertise in art and education, teach a variety of courses in drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking and textiles to students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Participating schools can schedule a single lesson or several classes spread throughout the year.

Joan Primm, the program’s director, said in an interview that “Artists in Classrooms” is a response to a lack of fundamental art education in public schools. “It’s been so shortchanged in the system,” said Primm, an elementary art specialist now working on her master’s degree in art education.

She cited efforts by the National Art Education Assn. to set higher standards for art instruction in public schools and also referred to a three-volume report released last year by the Getty Center for Education in the Arts stating that “the nation’s public schools have historically neglected art education” and calling for a renewed commitment to instruction in art history, criticism and practice.

“Artists in Classrooms” can be as informative for the classroom teachers as for the students, Primm said. (In California, she said, art instruction is not a requirement for a teaching credential.)

“The teachers like it when someone knowledgeable comes into the classroom,” Primm said. “We’re serving a need; obviously there’s a need out there or schools wouldn’t be paying for this program.”

Schools are charged a flat fee of $35 to $40 per class, with a sometime $5 to $15 fee for materials. Primm said the fees are necessary to cover the cost of the program, which receives no assistance from private or government grants.

Primm worked as an elementary art specialist with the Tustin Unified School District for four years until 1977, when she became curator of education for Santa Ana’s Bowers Museum. Under a grant from the California Arts Council, she developed the prototype “Artists in Classrooms” program in 1979.

When Primm left her Bowers post in September to devote more time to completing her master’s thesis, she kept “Artists in Classrooms” alive by bringing it to the Art Institute, which was recently accredited to grant four-year degrees in art.

According to Patricia Caldwell, president of the institute, “Artists in Classrooms” fits in with the school’s other outreach programs, which include continuing education courses and a “Junior School” where youngsters visit the campus and engage in art-oriented activities.

“You look at other colleges and universities and they have programs ranging from community education to community service, and any accredited university has to have that,” Caldwell said.

The institute president views Primm’s program as a “partnership” with the school districts. “I think the schools want the best possible education, but they have to live under constraints,” she said. “The heart is there, and we’re just helping them through a difficult time.”

Caldwell hopes the need for the program will eventually diminish.

“The end result is to make the kids so aware of art and so enthusiastic about it that the school districts will hire their own specialists who will be able to rotate among a certain number of schools on a regular basis,” she said.

Primm echoed Caldwell’s goal. “I want to have art as important as the other subjects because it is,” she said. But in the meantime, she added, “if I’m going to get these kids just this one time, I want to give them some skills.”

Caldwell, Primm and Christ agree that the aim of “Artists in Classrooms” is not to produce professional artists but to produce well-rounded individuals.

“It has a permanent effect. You have young people who are cultured, who feel comfortable walking into a museum or into a gallery,” Caldwell said. “We hope that they will always, no matter what profession they pursue, view art as an important part of living.”