FOR THE KIDS : Art to the Rescue : Residency programs bring working artists in to teach elementary school students in cash-starved districts.

Every Monday artist Jane McKinney lugs her supplies to a classroom at Ventura’s Anacapa Middle School. This week it’s bags of plaster of Paris so the students can mold stands for the sculptures they made last week.

Miles away at Oxnard’s Ocean View Junior High School, percussionist Robert “Sartuse” Hoard unloads his instruments and kids crowd around to help carry them into the school.

For eight weeks McKinney and Hoard make the trek to the schools, giving the class a 45-minute glimpse into the world of the arts through the Artists-in-the-Classroom program.

Welcome to arts education in the ‘90s. School budgets are lean. Most elementary schools in the county no longer have an art or music teacher.

But for $325, a classroom teacher can bring in a recognized local artist for an eight-week residency. For those schools that can scrounge up the money, there are 23 artists to choose from, all listed in the Artists-in-the-Classroom catalogue sent out to the schools by the Ventura County superintendent of schools office.

If it’s music they want, they will find folk singers Tom and Dawn Kuznkowski, songwriter-musician Paul Sanchez or jazz saxophonist Jon Crosse, who has taught at UCLA and produced two children’s recordings.

Artist Kim Loucks is on the list, along with Slava Sukhorukov, a Russian artist featured on the PBS National Geographic special “Voices of Leningrad.”

Others include poet George Keenan, who doubles as owner of the City Bakery in Ventura; musical storyteller Penny Little; mime Lynne Thurston; dancer Pamela Cohen; aikido expert Nobuo Iseri; puppeteer Arla Crane, and even a film animator, Gary Schwartz, who has directed animation for Disney, Sesame Street and MTV.

The program originated four years ago in the Ventura Unified School District through the Ventura Arts Council. Because of its popularity, county school officials decided to expand it to schools outside the city of Ventura.

So, the program was offered countywide this fall, and is now administered by Diana Rigby, administrator of curriculum and instruction for the county schools office.

This year schools in Ojai, Simi Valley, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village, as well as Ventura, booked artists for residencies, Rigby said. But even though the program has expanded, participation has not increased.

“It’s been slow this year,” said Brian Bemel, a fine arts specialist with Ventura Unified School District who helps run the program. “Schools just don’t have the money to spend.”

Most of the participating schools rely on parent-teacher organizations to pay for an artist’s fee. But those groups are under pressure to raise more and more funds for school activities. The city of Ventura and Bank of A. Levy provide some funding for the program.

Last year nearly every Ventura school booked at least one artist, Bemel said. There were 77 residencies in all. So far this year, the number is up to 43, but Bemel still expects to have 100 throughout the county by the end of the school year.

Some Ventura schools have dropped out for lack of money, Rigby said. At other schools, administrators who managed to pay for five or so artists last year can scrounge up only enough for one this year.

At Anacapa Middle School, art teacher Jacqueline Crystal was able to book McKinney as her artist in the classroom partly because of a private donation.

“It gives me a chance to keep up with what other artists are doing,” she said as McKinney took over her class. “I can see what the latest is.”

Meanwhile, McKinney was helping students mix up the plaster of Paris. The previous week under her direction they had crafted sculptures from wire, beads and plastic. Now they were ready to sink their creations into a permanent base.

“I have no idea what it is,” said student Barbara Piper as she planted her sculpture into a bowl of the creamy glop. “I just put a bunch of stuff together. I call it ‘The Thing.’ ”

Next week McKinney will show them how to mold Costa Rican and African-style masks. They will learn how to use a garlic press to create “hair” for the masks. Two weeks ago they tried origami and before the series is over they will experiment with clay, which usually turns out to be the most popular.

“I try to give them a taste of art,” McKinney said. “I try to hit the high spots--the last 3,000 years of sculpture.”

For the Oxnard students in Hoard’s class, it’s a lesson in rhythm and motion and a look at drums and other instruments from Africa, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

“Most of these kids are starving for rhythm,” he said. He teaches them how to use the instruments, and many show promise, considering the brief time he is with the students each week.

“They get a lot in a short time.”

* FYI

For more information about the Artist-in-the-Classroom program, call Brian Bemel at Ventura Unified School District, 648-4767, or Diana Rigby at the Ventura County superintendent of schools office, 388-4410.