Children Learn to Express Themselves at Art Center

Brittany Smith was bored by art class in her El Monte public school.

“They just gave us a piece of paper and said, ‘Draw this,’ ” the 13-year-old said.

But at the Art Center for Kids in Pasadena, Brittany has flourished because she is encouraged to draw on her own terms. She now has a passion for creating still life with charcoal and pastels.

“They’re not treated like kids here,” said Paula Goodman, associate director of kindergarten through 12th-grade public education programs for the Art Center College of Design, which houses the children’s program. “They’re treated like young artists with their own points of view.”

The program is offered to students ages 9 to 14. Brittany is among 100 youngsters from low-income families who attend the five-week course through a scholarship fund. A total of 600 students are signed up for the classes this year.

The program received $15,000 this year from the Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign, which raises money for nonprofit agencies in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

The Art Center for Kids offers courses that rival instruction found in top private high schools, Goodman said. The faculty includes an architect who worked with Frank Gehry, designer of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a designer who worked on Mattel’s Hot Wheels toy cars. Students come from as far away as San Diego to be on the serene campus located in the foothills overlooking the Rose Bowl.

“They aspire to achieve the same things as other people,” Goodman said. “But how are they supposed to do that when the public schools are failing them?”

Children may choose from courses such as animation, advertising, photography, comic book illustration, architecture and industrial design. The weekend classes are 15 hours for each term.

Audra Lydon said she felt a need for art when she chose drama as her one elective class at Waverly School in Pasadena. So her parents enrolled her in Art School for Kids at her request.

“It’s a way to express myself,” the 13-year-old said in an Art of Design class where she was painting yellow and black stripes under the words “Bee’s Knees” -- a label design for a glass bottle of honey.

In a classroom down the hall, Jimmy Centorino was asked to sketch a car he disliked and redesign it. The 12-year-old carefully drew an accurate outline of a Ford Probe.

“It’s ugly,” the Fontana resident said. “I’m going to have to redesign the whole chassis.”

Educators such as Goodman have long emphasized that youngsters can better develop critical-thinking skills by engaging in creative activities.

She recalled a dyslexic student who was petrified of talking to his peers when he arrived. By the course’s end, he was standing in front of the class presenting his artwork.

“This is not passive learning,” Goodman said. “We’re not giving them [facts] and making them memorize them.”

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