Teenage Artists Pursuing Dreams

From visual arts to music, dance to filmmaking, 512 high school students from across the state are pursuing their dream careers this summer.

The students--14 from Ventura County--began competing last winter to spend four weeks studying at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia this summer.

One in three applicants to the California State Summer School for the Arts was accepted in the 12-year-old program designed to incubate promising talent.

“This provides a training ground for the most talented and motivated students,” said program director Robert Jaffe. “The arts and entertainment industry is the largest employer in the state, so this is really about a combination of promoting cultural values and our own economic self-interests.”

Chris Woodhead, who at 17 will be a senior at Simi Valley High School in the fall, would like to be an animator. He paints for fun and is thinking about developing his own comic book.

“I’m trying to develop a story about Box Canyon,” Chris said. “It’s kind of a weird place between counties. Everyone talks about the the stuff with Charles Manson that happened there years ago.”

Chris said he appreciates the summer school program because it lets him practice his art in an environment that is different from his regular school.

“There, kids just think I’m a weirdo who makes stupid stuff,” he said. “They don’t get it. I’ve always drawn and had ideas to make things. It’s something I have to do or I go crazy. If it’s inside me, it has to get out. And here, everybody understands that.”

The arts summer school was created by state legislation and is funded by public and private dollars. About half of the program’s $1.5-million budget comes from the state, and the rest from tuition and donations, Jaffe said.

The cost per student for the monthlong program is $3,150, although in-state residents pay $1,310. Only 20 students outside of California are allowed to participate, and they pay the full amount. Because admission is merit-based, nearly half of the students receive scholarships.

“We don’t expect parents to mortgage their homes to pay for summer school,” Jaffe said.

Competition for the slots is intense, attracting only the most serious and devoted arts students, officials said.

“These are the kinds of kids still taking dance lessons long after their friends quit; still carrying around journals and sketch pads,” Jaffe said. “They are really focusing on what they want--so much that they are willing to give up things.”

Although the teenagers get to spend a month away from home on a college campus, they are strictly supervised. They must relinquish their cars and subject themselves to curfews and bed checks.

“This is a collegiate experience for high school students,” Jaffe said. “It’s as free and liberating an environment as can be with a 10:30 p.m. curfew.”

The program is far from traditional summer camp. The students participate in a full-fledged college program that grants three state university credits.

Most of the students will pursue their respective art fields in college and beyond. After 12 summers, there are many examples of past graduates now making a living in the arts, Jaffe said.

“We have a lot of former students with careers in the industry--and some are semi-famous,” he said.

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Puff Johnson, a former summer school vocalist from West Covina, released an album last year that went gold on the R&B; charts. And Jaffe said that four of the animators on the upcoming Disney movie “A Bug’s Life” are graduates of the program.

During the month, students immerse themselves in their area of interest by taking classes six days a week and doing studio work in the evenings to complete assignments. On their day off, field trips are organized to art galleries, theater performances and theme parks such as Universal Studios or Magic Mountain.

“We’re not going to teach anyone here to be an animator in a month, but we’ll give them a sense of what it’s like to be one,” Jaffe said.

Erin Johnson, a 16-year-old going into her sophomore year at Oxnard High School, wants to be a filmmaker. Before this program, she only worked with video, shooting little spots with her family’s camcorder. But this summer, she used film for the first time.

“You can really tell the difference,” she said. “The film is clearer and does something more to the story.”

Erin shot and edited a four-minute film on a Super-8 camera. She recruited an actress from the summer program to star in her short, which was shot in a wooded area behind the school. Erin was director and camera operator.

“The premise is a girl walking in nature suddenly gets angry and goes into a violent rage against the trees and grass,” Erin said.

The young filmmaker said she finds the atmosphere at the summer school refreshing and doesn’t mind giving up part of her summer break to study what she would probably be doing on her own anyway.

“I’ve learned more in a few weeks than I could ever learn anywhere else,” Erin said. “It’s a great and wonderful feeling that everyone is here because they’re doing what they love to do. No one is going around complaining, which they do a lot at normal school.”

School director Jaffe said most of his students feel that way.

“Every high school has the one art kid who feels out of the mainstream,” he said. “But what’s fun here is that they’re all art kids, surrounded by 500 others just like them.”

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Ventura County

California Arts Scholars

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Amber Bassett Ventura visual arts Gabriel Davis Santa Paula animation Lisa Dokken Newbury Park vocal music Margaret Ennis Simi Valley writing Erin Johnson Oxnard film Douglas Lamore Simi Valley visual arts Meryl O’Conner Thousand Oaks visual arts Amy Rogers Fillmore dance Crystal Sanchez Oxnard vocal music Thomas Saxe Simi Valley animation Eric Schrecongost Simi Valley visual arts Cindy Soohoo Thousand Oaks visual arts Chandra Tapie Simi Valley dance Christopher Woodhead Simi Valley visual arts

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