CalArts Plays Summer Host to High School Art Students

Carrying their belongings in suitcases, laundry baskets and cardboard boxes, they started moving into their dorm rooms at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia about 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

By 4:30 p.m., more than 400 of the state’s most talented high school artists--with the help of their parents--were settled in and ready for their orientation into the first California State Summer School for the Arts. Beginning today, they will start four weeks of intense study in art, dance, music, film and theater on the CalArts campus.

The school is funded with a $350,000 grant from the state Department of Education and through $750 in tuition from each student. Scholarships were available through private contributions for students whose families couldn’t afford the fee.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity, especially for someone from a small town,” said Nancy McHone, as she helped her son Abel, 15, move into his room. “There’s just so much here that isn’t available at home.”

Supplies Own Hot Sauce

Home for the McHones is Willits, a community of about 4,000 residents in Mendocino County. Abel, who will be a junior at Willits High School in the fall, is a visual arts student. Along with clothes, linens, radio, tape player and other necessities, Abel brought with him one of the more unusual extras--a gallon of hot sauce.

“I was afraid they wouldn’t have any here,” he said.

His roommate had not yet arrived, and Abel’s mother said it was her son’s first time away from home where he knew nobody.

“He’ll do fine, I’m sure,” she said.

Unlike Abel, Kathleen Cowling, 16, was well acquainted with her roommate, Cristie Johnson, also 16.

“We’ve known each other since second grade,” said Kathleen. Both now are students at Shasta High School in Redding and are looking forward to careers in the visual arts.

“I love art,” Cristie said. “I’m so excited about this school.”

Adrianne Cowling, Kathleen’s mother, looked over her daughter’s schedule of classes and decided the $750 in tuition would be money well spent.

Lots to Choose From

“I was an art minor in college,” she said. “Kathleen’s going to get more instruction in these four weeks than I did in my whole four years at San Jose State.”

Across the hall, roommates Staczi Berlin, a student at Rio Americano College in Sacramento, and Alexa Birk, who attends Santa Barbara High School, were getting to know each other. Both are 16 and interested in visual art.

Staczi said she wants to be a commercial artist, but Alexa confessed she hasn’t really settled on a career yet. Both said they applied to the school not only because of the instruction, but because it sounded like a fun way to spend the summer and to meet new people.

“Besides, it looks good on my record,” said Alexa.

Competition to enter the school was intense, according to CalArts spokeswoman Anita Bonell. About 800 students, among the several thousand who applied, were interviewed. In the end, only 415 were invited to attend the school.

Most heard about the school through their art teachers but Mark Belter, 16, who lives in Orland, a small Northern California community near Chico, learned of the opportunity through his fifth-grade English teacher.

“I got my application in just two days before the deadline,” he said. “I’m a writer--short stories, poems, things like that.”

Mark’s parents, Bob and Kathy Belter, especially liked the idea because it was in Valencia--an area they thought they knew well. They moved from Saugus to Orland when their son was a baby.

“It’s changed so much,” said Kathy Belter, “that we couldn’t even find our old house at first.”

Site Changes Each Year

CalArts was in competition with other colleges and universities to be host to the first state summer school for the arts. Next year, it will be held elsewhere.

“We’re just thrilled to be the first,” said Bonell.

William Flynn, school director, said the idea is to challenge the students and to see what their limits are. In addition to classroom studies, they will meet successful artists and be told some of the drawbacks about a career commitment to the arts, he said.

The school is assured of funding for the next two summers. After that, it will be up to the state Department of Education to decide whether it should continue.