San Diego Arts Groups Reach Out : Organizations Are Filling In Education Gaps--but Is It Enough?

Last spring, when administrators from the city’s arts organizations came before the San Diego City Council in an orchestrated effort to ask to maintain funding for the city’s Commission for Arts and Culture, they didn’t tout the nationally touring plays they brought to town, or their visual arts exhibitions or music programs. They didn’t focus on local singers, dancers or artists. They talked instead of their educational outreach programs, many of them in local schools. And they described them as an investment in future arts audiences.

The pitch worked. City arts funding for 1992 increased $150,000, to $5.2 million.

Education is one of the current buzzwords for today’s arts organizations, a response, many arts administrators say, to the extreme shortage of arts programs in the county’s public schools.

Arts organizations have also found that education programs can be a tool for bettering community relations. Faced with controversies about the value of art to taxpayers, arts officials point to their often-extensive educational programs, many of which directly benefit children.

Likewise, public arts funding organizations on the city, state and national levels are also requiring arts organizations to emphasize education to receive funding. The National Endowment for the Arts, for example, just put together a new initiative, at President Bush’s request, to increase funding of education programs. And San Diego’s Commission for Arts and Culture requires outreach programs as a condition for funding arts organizations.

The costs of creating and staffing educational outreach programs, is high, arts administrators say, sometimes cutting substantially into budgets that might otherwise be used for presenting art. Some argue that education programs are draining resources from programming. Most say that, despite the drain, the outreach is essential for survival of the arts.

San Diego County arts organizations, like their counterparts nationwide, have become extremely active and innovative in the field of education, particularly in their efforts to reach a large socioeconomic, cross-cultural base through the county’s schools. Increasingly during the past decade, the county’s plethora of cultural organizations have been producing a wide-ranging net of school classes, activities and performances that go far beyond the one-shot, school-day field trips of yesteryear.

A generation ago, in the course of an elementary- and secondary-school public education, kids might have visited one or two museums, and, if they were lucky, listened to a live orchestra.

Today, arts organizations involve students in structured arts activities, many of them allowing students to perform in and/or create works of art. Among the programs are: full-fledged operas in the schools, newly choreographed dance performances by school children and professional dancers at the San Diego Convention Center, bilingual theatrical training for junior high and high school kids considered at risk of dropping out and interactive visits to art museums that teach children to make art like what they’re seeing in the museum.

These school programs may well be San Diego arts agencies’ least visible contribution to the county’s culture. But some argue that they are among their most important.

The motives for presenting educational programs are many.

“We have discovered in nine years of presenting that presenting alone doesn’t make an audience for dance in San Diego,” said Fred Colby, executive director of the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts.

“We were seen as ‘those folks that bring in the big out-of-town companies,” Colby continued, referring to the foundation’s primary purpose, which is to present touring dance companies such as Alvin Ailey and the San Francisco Ballet, which performed here last year. Performances for Ailey sold out, but the turnout for the San Francisco Ballet shows, among others, was disappointing, raising many questions for foundation staff as to whether San Diegans really want to see dance here regularly.

As a result, the foundation has thrown itself into education in an effort to reach beyond traditional arts patrons.

“We see education programs as a way of giving something back to the community and a way of building the dance audience to the point that we can support major dance in San Diego,” Colby said.

Tom Hall, managing director of the Old Globe Theatre, sees an additional role for the education programs. He claims arts organizations are filling a curriculum gap that increasingly is being left open by the schools.

“In the last 10 years, from 1980 on, among the first things to get cut in the education system are arts programs,” Hall said.

Indeed, last spring, when the San Diego Unified School District was looking to cut $29 million from its 1991-92 budget, among Supt. Tom Payzant’s first suggestions was the elimination of the elementary schools’ instrumental music program. The cut didn’t happen, largely because of a significant lobbying effort by parents and the Community Council for Music in the Schools (a grass-roots organization of parents and teachers), even while some non-art programs--including $200,000 from the inter-scholastic athletic programs--were cut. Still, the attempt to fully eliminate the instrumental music program was seen by many in the arts as ominous evidence of a trend.

Even the program that survives--unchanged from last year--doesn’t reach all the students: In San Diego city schools, only 16 music teachers now serve 80 elementary schools, and 30 elementary schools have no regular music program at all.

Hall says arts organizations have stepped in to provide basics that schools used to consider fundamental. Hall admits, however, that arts organizations can never hope to be comprehensive in building a program for all students. He says the motivation for reaching out to the kids is changing.

“Many of the arts institutions have begun to take on a more traditional educational function. Just presenting our art and its teachings were no longer enough. Simply taking kids to see traditional theater was not enough,” Hall said.

Statistics of money spent on education by San Diego County arts organizations are impressive when considered in relation to overall program budgets: The San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts spent 25% of its $1.2-million 1990-91 budget on education programs. Of that, $20,000 went for free tickets for students, $5,000 for lecture-demonstrations by visiting artists, and $250,000 was invested in CityMoves!, an ambitious yearlong academic outreach program that taught dance, choreography and/or set design to 2,000 elementary students and culminated in a performance of a new work “The Terrible Tale of Ringmaster Twigg” performed by more than 300 students at the San Diego Convention Center in May.

The Old Globe Theatre will spend more than $500,000 of its $8.4-million budget this year on six education programs that range from Teatro Meta In-Schools (a 14-week bilingual acting and play-writing program for junior and senior high school kids considered at risk of dropping out) to Playguides, which brings students to three winter shows at the Old Globe and also presents some in-school performances.

The San Diego Museum of Art will spend $1.5 million on arts outreach in a five-year program, begun in 1988, called Young at Art, funded by the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation in a grant that also gave another $1.5 million to San Diego’s elementary schools. Among the highlights of the museum’s Young at Art offerings is the Art Rig, a 14-wheel truck filled with hands-on exhibits of some real art as well as touchable art reproductions, which travels to all of the city of San Diego’s elementary schools for student tours. So far, the rig has done one tour of 118 city elementary schools, reaching 73,000 children in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Even the relatively smaller La Jolla Chamber Music Society, with an annual budget of $1.1 million has an education budget of $35,000 for its outreach programs.

At their most ambitious, these programs have limitations, however. They approach the arts from a far different perspective than schools traditionally have taught, essentially leapfrogging basic skills. School programs--when they are offered--teach kids the fundamentals of music, dance, theater and visual arts. Arts outreach programs generally aim to introduce students to a specific art form.

The San Diego Opera’s acclaimed Opera for Kids . . . by Kids, for example, is a 20-year-old, six-week residency program that last year went out to 10 schools. Two teams of three opera professionals work in the schools throughout the academic year; each team works with up to 120 fourth- to sixth-graders who rehearse on a daily schedule, make scenery and perform one of two children’s operas. Typically, three full performances (including an evening performance for parents) of the opera climax the residency.

“Opera for Kids . . . by Kids” began with an adaptation of Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” and now includes Jeffrey Rockwell’s “Rip Van Winkle,” an opera commissioned by the opera company two years ago especially for this program. Still, even this program does not replace a curriculum that would teach kids the basics--such as how to read music.

Further, even the most ambitious outreach programs are limited in how much they can accomplish. Opera for Kids . . . by Kids this year will expand to just 12 elementary schools countywide, public and private.

Playguides, sponsored by the Old Globe Theatre, brings students to three winter shows at the Old Globe and presents productions in school classrooms by the Globe’s resident graduate students. It reaches just 40 schools a year.

Many, though not all, of these programs are paid for in large part by grants to the arts organizations and are offered to the schools at minimal cost. Sometimes the schools provide funding: For example, San Diego city schools contributed $20,000 toward CityMoves! last year, San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts’s director Colby said.

But, not all of the arts groups can afford to present programs at a cost affordable to the kids. In late May, Starlight Musical Theatre canceled a morning-matinee special performance of “The Wizard of Oz” at the San Diego Civic Theatre for county school kids because, at $10 a ticket, not enough classes signed up. The show was part of Starlight’s summer season--with evening, matinees and weekend performances for subscribers and other full-price ticket buyers, but the special performance was an experiment for Starlight, which in past years had included school groups in regularly scheduled performances for subscribers.

Roberta McClellan, who at the time was director of marketing for Starlight, said only about 350 kids purchased tickets through the schools for the program, and, because the single extra performance would have cost the company about $10,000, it would have taken at least 1,000 kids to make the presentation viable.

The La Jolla Playhouse, too, has seen finances limit ambitious educational programming.

The Playhouse conducts an annual high school drama festival and competition, giving feedback to students and educators from working professionals, and it also presents student matinees for Playhouse productions as well as workshops for young performers, among its continuing educational programs, but it cut one of its most ambitious outreach programs in 1989 for lack of funds.

The Playhouse’s Performance Outreach Program started in 1987 with an original production titled “Silent Edward,” which toured during the fall semester of 1987 and spring of 1988 to about 40 elementary schools each semester. A second original production, “The Man Who Had No Story,” toured to about 50 schools in the spring of 1989. The plays were developed in residence at Toler Elementary School, with professional writers, actors and support staff working before student audiences.

At the end of the four weeks, minimum, spent at Toler before the tours, Playhouse Managing Director Alan Levey said the students knew the words to the play as well as the actors. “It was an extraordinary experience for the writers,” Levey said.

However, each semester’s tour cost the Playhouse about $60,000, Levey said, and when the funding was not renewed from the initial grants for the program, the Playhouse had to cancel. Even with the initial underwriting, schools were asked to pay $250 for a presentation, or $350 if two shows were given, but, according to Levey, when some schools could not come up with the fee, the Playhouse gave free performances, amounting to about 15% of the tour.

“We were adamant about keeping the cost to the schools at a level they could afford,” Levey said.

The Playhouse canceled the program at about the same time it announced its financial stabilization campaign and has no plans to reinstate it.

“The real loss was to the schools,” Levey said, “and for us and our staff, to get out and to work in the schools, it was a humbling experience.” However, he added, “We are not going to start it again unless we have a minimum of three years of support pledged and in hand.”

From his perspective at the Old Globe and as president of the national League of Resident Theaters, Hall says he sees some danger in cities expecting arts organizations to take on too great an educational role. At the National Endowment for the Arts, he said, the emphasis on education could erode support for the presentation of art.

“There’s been a push for cultural institutions to take on an increasing educational role.” Hall said. “If you continue to broaden the expense to take on extra issues, it’s bringing in a different problem. More money is being drained off what we need to negotiate with artists.

“Potentially we could have to choose between our primary purpose, which is art, and our secondary purpose, still very important, which is education.

“If push comes to shove, I will always choose the primary purpose,” Hall said.

The danger is that funding for art could lose out.

“I think we’re being pushed in so many different directions. The pressure has to stop until we see what is practical.

“You don’t do any good for education if you go out of business.”

San Diego arts writers Nancy Churnin, Kenneth Herman, Leah Ollman and Frankie Wright contributed to this report.

Art and Money

The following is a sampling of education programs with the schools by San Diego arts organizations. La Jolla Chamber Music Society Annual Budget: $1.1 million Education Budget: $38,000 Programs: Visits to schools, complimentary tickets for students. La Jolla Playhouse Annual Budget: $4.6 million Education Budget: $210,000 Programs: Weekend workshops for students, theater tours and Shakespeare workshops for gifted students program, high school drama festival with competition for student productions, student matinees, summer conservatory. Mingei International Museum of World Art Annual Budget: $700,000 Education Budget: Not available Program: Teacher guides sent to schools in advance of class trips to museum, free tours of museum for school groups. Museum of Photographic Arts Annual Budget: $850,000 Education Budget: $108,740 1990-91 Program: Free museum tours for groups, including bilingual tours, staff lectures in the schools, special classes for students, special bilingual education packages for teachers on the Claudio Bravo exhibition. Contact: David Elliott. Old Globe Theatre Annual Budget: $8.4 million Education Budget: Approximately $500,000 Programs: A bilingual acting/writing program at 12 junior high and high schools for students at risks of dropping out. Special programs for students. Theater awards to students and faculty. Summer theater camp. San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts Annual Budget: $1.2 million Education Budget: $275,000 1990-91 Program: Free tickets for students, lecture/demonstrations with visiting dancers. City Moves!, an original commissioned performance involving more than 300 elementary school students performing alongside local dancers. San Diego Museum of Art Annual Budget: $5.58 million Education Budget: $430,000 Annual outreach to all city elementary schools by Art Rig, a 14-wheel truck filled with art through the Young at Art program. Schools countywide get teacher training and scholarships, and school groups are given tours of museum collection. San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art Annual Budget: $2.06 million Education Budget: $170,000 Program: Through the school’s GATE program for gifted children, museum docents give slide lectures in elementary schools then classes follow up with visit to museum. Bilingual museum workshops; available for school classes, including free busing offered by the museum. San Diego Opera Annual Budget: $5.4 million Education Budget: $190,000 Program: Team of young professional singers visits 210 schools annually with one-act comic opera in English and potpourri program of opera arias. “Opera for Kids . . . by Kids” is a six-week residency program where fourth through sixth-graders stage own opera. Every dress rehearsal of Civic Theatre opera production is given to student audience with docent narration between acts. San Diego Repertory Theatre Annual Budget: $2 million Education Budget: $60,000 Programs: Project Discovery offers subsidized tickets and transportation for regularly scheduled Rep productions for students of San Diego Unified and Sweetwater districts. Also, a touring program on water conservation for San Diego County schools produced with the schools. San Diego Symphony Annual Budget: $7.705 million Education Budget: $254,150 Program: Student-oriented concerts at Symphony Hall, chamber orchestra visits to schools, lecture-demonstrations by individual symphony musicians, annual concerto competition for school-age musicians.

* ON WEDNESDAY:

Two San Diego teachers speak out: Francis Thumm, a music teacher who emphasizes fundamentals at Point Loma High School, has some harsh criticism for the societal forces that have relegated education to the back burner, especially as it pertains to the arts. Gary Stokes, who teaches music at Hardy Elementary, has thrilled young students by bringing synthesizers into the classroom, but some educators worry that such an approach will overlook essential basics. Also, a look at the legacy of Young at Art, an artist-in-residence program in city schools.