KidzArtz Festival Is More Than Finger Paints and Clay

KidzArtz is kid’s stuff, but it certainly isn’t child’s play.

Saturday’s daylong KidzArtz Festival will transform Balboa Park into a beehive of artistic activity. And it’s strictly art for art’s sake, according to its creator.

“KidzArtz is a kids event, but we don’t have the typical clowns or balloons or face painting,” said Elaine Krieger, coordinator of the festival. “We’re trying to present high-quality art for children. We don’t talk down to them, and we don’t talk over their heads. This is a creative, uplifting experience, but it’s also a learning experience.”

“I wanted to do something special and wonderful for children--to give them the best chance to see professionals and to participate in something wholesome,” Krieger said in explaining why she put the festival together. “There are too few events where children get an opportunity to experience the arts.

“There needs to be a balance,” she said. “Children are exposed to sports and academia, but they need a taste of the arts. The arts budget in the schools was cut drastically about a year and a half ago, and a lot of music and arts programs were cut.

“I created KidzArtz because the need was there,” Krieger said. “Some of these kids have very little, and one experience can change a child’s life.”

KidzArtz will feature about 25 events from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at nine sites, including the Festival Stage, the Organ Pavilion and Spanish Village.

“There’ll be dozens of special hands-on activities, and a cornucopia of music, dance, puppetry, mime and theater performances,” Krieger said. “We’re putting all the arts in one basket, and encouraging everyone to come early and select the events they want to see.”

Among the grab bag of arts events running concurrently throughout the day will be appearances by five-time Academy Award-winning cartoonist Friz Freleng, San Diego pianist Gustavo Romero, artist and sculptor James Hubbell and a Scottish Highland pipe band.

All children who show up Saturday will be encouraged to sing, dance, act and even paint along with the artists. But, because of the weeklong outreach program that precedes the festival, some San Diego schoolchildren will be tagged for special participation in the program.

New York choreographer Nina David, who called the shots for 1,100 dancers at the Super Bowl in San Diego last January, is one of the artists involved in KidzArtz. And she’s an old hand at this children’s game.

“I do a lot of work with children. I did a tap dance piece with children at Madison Square Garden with Mary Tyler Moore,” said David, “and the children wanted to continue with tap dancing.

“These were kids from every type of ethnic background, and I didn’t want to lose them to the street, so I took them on,” she said. “We called them the Soft Shoe Kids, not just because tap dance is often called soft shoe, but because we didn’t have money or regular tap dance shoes.”

David taught them old-time tap, “the art of legitimate musical noise for the feet,” as she calls it, and the children soon gained the attention of Dance magazine Editor William Como, who encouraged David to expand her activities.

As a result, David and five of her young hoofers, now called Tap Kids USA, will be in the city schools all week, passing on the American art form to San Diego youngsters.

“It’s important for people to communicate with each other,” David said. “Rhythm is one way. Rather than dancing drama, we’re dancing life. We’ll have a few children from each school come on Friday when I choreograph the piece for the festival. They don’t need any dance training to participate, and my kids will be there, too. I think it’s a wonderful cultural exchange.”

What can local kids expect to gain from participating in David’s impromptu group?

“It’s fun,” said 14-year-old Oya Bagura, who first worked with David in the Mary Tyler Moore performance. “It keeps us disciplined. We’ve learned what to do and what not to do. It helps you a lot, but mainly it’s just fun.”

Krieger is counting on that fact to stimulate San Diego kids.

“This experience builds audiences and creates future artists. I want them to pick up a paint brush or a musical instrument instead of doing something they shouldn’t be doing,” said Krieger. “But children have to know these things are available.”

Last year, when KidzArtz Festival made its debut, 15,000 children and their families flocked to Balboa Park for the free performances. This year, Krieger hopes to double that number. But financial support is still slow in coming.

“The city has helped, and we’ve had corporate support, but all we raised so far is one-third of our budget. The performers are not being paid,” she said. “All of them are donating their time, but everyone has been very willing to help.”

If Krieger had her way, “the children of San Diego would be as excited by hearing Gustavo Romero or playing with clay as if they walked out of the ballpark and got an autograph from Tony Gwynn.”