Summer Class Is Catering to Young at Arts

For 517 high school students who are painting, dancing, drumming and writing now in Valencia, the arts are not an extra. They are essential.

Although many of the young artists may not receive the materials, instruction and inspiration at their home high schools to nurture their talents, they have 28 days to get their fill at the California State Summer School for the Arts.

Now in its 15th year, the publicly and privately funded program draws students from throughout the state (and a few others) to the California Institute of the Arts’ hilltop campus.

Nearly every hour of their days is spent on projects--in animation, dance, drama, music, creative writing, visual arts and film and video.

With this year’s program ending Saturday, CalArts has become a cinder-block maze of creativity. Around one corner, wispy figures in charcoal hang on a wall. Around another, students tap out songs on Balinese drums and gongs.

Many students come from high schools that specialize in the arts, but others said their schools offer little to encourage their talents. They tell of guitar classes taught by someone who does not play guitar, a performing arts magnet school without a theater. “This is the only outlet that I’ve ever had for creative writing,” said Claire Kinnane, 17, of Maryland, who is one of a dozen out-of-state students participating this summer. At home, she has to inspire herself to write poetry. “Here I get assignments,” she said. “It’s like a trigger.”

The resources at Blake Jackson’s high school in Riverside County are similarly limited, he said. “You just pretty much have to do it on your own--get interested by yourself,” said the 15-year-old, who is studying animation.

The mix of students illustrates disparities in education, particularly in the arts, said Robert Jaffe, the summer program’s director. A Palo Alto high school offers three levels of advanced art classes and employs two teachers who helped write the national Advanced Placement test in art, but students at a Central Valley school learn drawing and painting from a lone teacher who doubles as the track coach and drafting instructor.

“He’s very good [at art], but it’s only by luck that he is,” Jaffe said.

Jaffe, who has been with the summer school since its inception, said he has recently noticed an improvement in the skills the students bring. The program has always attracted a corps of highly talented students, but “the bottom level of quality is improving.”

That is a sign, he said, that California is pulling out of a long period of ignoring the arts in schools.

“By and large, it’s improving everywhere, especially in the visual arts,” he said.

Now that the University of California requires at least one year of art instruction for admission, more students are discovering their talents, Jaffe said. (Past UC applicants could choose between an arts course and a foreign language.)

“There are more kids in arts classes around the state than ever before,” he said. And if California decides to require arts instruction for a high school diploma, “that’s going to get more kids interested in this.”

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have been studying the CalArts program’s participants for all 15 years and have determined through surveys that their artistic activities increased their interest in school and improved their relationships there and at home.

Supporters of the summer school say the findings are reason enough to broaden arts programs everywhere. The school’s private foundation paid some or all of the program’s $1,445 tuition for about half of this summer’s students. Donors include individuals, other foundations and corporations. State tax dollars account for 54% of the program’s funding, which helps pay for the university professors, high school teachers and visiting artists who teach.

To Darren Greenberg, a junior at Chatsworth High School, government funding at all levels for the arts is inadequate.

“The money that could be spent on art is being spent on rockets and bombs,” said Darren, who is studying music this summer.

But an artist doesn’t necessarily need a government subsidy, instruction or freely available materials to pursue his interest, said Joel Aguiar, a junior at Brawley Union High School in Imperial County.

“The person who wants to be an artist,” he said, “is going to do something about it.”