Junior Pageant of the Masters : Learning Art by Being Part of It

Curtains silently opened on the stage. A hush fell over the packed audience.

Recorded music swelled, and the stage suddenly was a giant-size artwork reproduction, populated by junior-size people.

Dressed in the high fashion of 19th-Century Paris, the youngsters on stage stood frozen in place. Impressionistic hues gently glowed from painting backdrops surrounding the young Parisians.

And there it was: An elementary-school’s version of French painter Georges Seurat’s masterpiece, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”

For McGaugh Elementary School in Seal Beach, the scene on Thursday morning was the opening of the school’s eighth “Pageant of the Masters.” McGaugh’s 1-day show is modeled after the famous annual event of the same name in Laguna Beach.

All Student Can Be Involved

“Our show primarily uses fifth-grade students, but students at all levels in the school become involved in the production,” said McGaugh Principal John Blaydes, who was named California elementary school principal of the year in 1987. “We think the pageant helps the students experience all the levels of art. In the process, the students learn about history, geography, cultures, music and dancing.”

Blaydes said the students paint the backdrops as well as act out the human figures in the masterworks that they portray on stage. Work on the school’s annual pageant starts in SeptemGaugh, proudly sat in the front row for the opening show on Thursday morning. “It’s exciting to see that all the children in a school have the opportunity to develop their art talents,” Miller said. “We’re really committed to fine arts education in our district, and I think this is a nice example of the application of that.”

The 45-minute pageant on Thursday involved portrayals of five art masterworks. In addition to the Seurat painting, the students depicted “Henriette and Her Brothers” by French painter Henri Matisse; an untitled abstract modeled after American artist Jackson Pollock’s works; “The Wedding Dance” by Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel, and “The Country School” by American artist Winslow Homer.

After each painting was portrayed, statue-like, by the students, they then took part in a dance scene geared to the theme of the painting.

McGaugh is a kindergarten-through-fifth-grade school. Most schools at that level have presentations in which children dress up as vegetables or animals or characters from fairy tales. McGaugh, instead, has opted for a pageant that demands unusual amounts of research, study and discipline by the students.

The McGaugh students said in various interviews that they enjoy the work and are very devoted to their “Pageant of the Masters.”

“It’s fun,” said Rylie Ogle, 11, a fifth-grader who had roles in both the Seurat and Homer paintings enacted on stage. “And I’ve learned a lot about art. I used to think there was only one kind of art--just drawing pictures of people. But now I’ve learned there’s abstract painting and sculpture--different kinds of art.”

McGaugh art teacher Shirley Johns, in an interview after the show, said: “The children at this school love art. It really shows during art lab; you should see the enthusiasm. We think this is a wonderful way for the children to become involved with art.”

Blaydes said: “This pageant becomes the application of art to the students’ lives. They are experiencing all the tools and techniques of how the artist shared his talents. They learn how to compare and evaluate artists. For instance, they’ll look at an Impressionist artist like Seurat, who used pointillism, and they’ll look at Jackson Pollock, who used a different technique by splashing paint on canvas. And the students are able to evaluate that.”

In interviews Thursday morning, some students in the pageant discussed what they had learned.

Shelli Mudd, 10, a fifth-grader, said: “I’ve learned about the colors the artists used and how they used them. Like, when I see Seurat’s paintings, (the style) makes it seem like it’s moving.”

Justin Parker, also 10 and a fifth-grader, said: “He (Seurat) has a really nice style of painting.” Justine had a dominant foreground role in the “Sunday Afternoon” portrayal. He depicted the young man with a stylish cap reclining on the grass in the park.

Asked how he managed to keep his face frozen for so long during the presentation, Justin grinned and said, “I kept my eyes on the teacher behind the stage.”

Art teacher Johns explained: “I always remind the children on stage to keep their eyes on me. And I’m back there (off stage) smiling at them and giving them encouragement.”