Photograph by Paul Myers

Sally Reagan, a member of the Art Docents of Los Gatos Inc., works on rubbings at Fisher Middle School during the organization's annual art show. The Art Docents, a nonprofit, mostly volunteer organization, has provided visual arts instruction in the Los Gatos Union School District since 1973.

Kids get creative, thanks to Art Docents

Volunteer groups help get art back in schools

By Rebecca Ray

Papier-mâché objects, mosaics, watercolors and scarves were only a few of the artworks on display in the Fisher Middle School cafeteria during the first week of April.

Spectators also saw oil and tempera paintings, ceramic works, collages, imprints of shapes in handmade paper, digital photos and objects made of cardboard, plaster, clay, tin cans, wood, beads and wire.

The works of art weren't created by professional artists, but by elementary and middle school students in the Los Gatos Union School District. The exhibition was organized by the Art Docents of Los Gatos Inc., a nonprofit, mostly volunteer organization that has provided visual arts lessons for LGUSD students since 1973.

The Art Docents are responsible for more than just getting students to do art projects. The docents teach art as a discipline and work with the district to make sure they're helping children meet the state's art standards, which the state Board of Education adopted in 1996.

The docents give five sequential presentations in each K-6 classroom during the year, in which children learn elements of art and principles of design, look at artworks and discuss their merits and places in history.

Before the presentations, the docents give teachers synopses of their presentations, which also contain vocabulary words that relate to the art presentations, ways that the presentation material connects to other subjects and art projects that teachers can do with their classes.

Docents also present workshops in classrooms. In the workshops, students practice various art techniques, which, the Art Docents say, reinforces what they learn during presentations.

Elaine Cardinale, first vice president of programs for the Art Docents, says the lessons are "process-oriented" rather than "product-oriented." This means that the docents place more emphasis on experimenting and learning new techniques, rather than on producing whole works.

"A lot of the time, the kids don't know even how to set up the composition, how to look," Cardinale says. "The teachers ask them to do these projects, and the kids don't know where to start sometimes. It's very frustrating for them, and they feel like failures."

What the Art Docents are trying to prevent is children saying that they don't like art because they aren't good at it. The Art Docents want to enable children to love art, Cardinale said, and know that art is a skill that's learned.

"Nurturing the creative side of kids and giving them positive feedback is just fun," Art Docent Wendy Palmer says. "[The Art Docents are] teaching kids they can draw; they just haven't been taught."

Just as the docents believe there's no right or wrong way to create art, they also believe there's no right or wrong way to interpret it. In fact, hearing children's different interpretations is one of Art Docent Mari Yamashiro's favorite aspects of teaching art. "[Children] haven't learned yet to censor themselves," she says. "They just say what they think."

"It's all about the kids," Cardinale says. "It's exciting to see them turn on, or to see their attitude change about art. It's not just about doing art, but about having an appreciation for the visual arts, and getting them [to engage in] a higher level of critical thinking."

Guest artists visit the schools through the Art Docents program. One artist came to Fisher, carved patterns into blocks of wood, painted them, and showed students how to make prints on Japanese rice paper. Ceramics artists have shown students how to throw pots. Another artist discussed "found art"--how to make sculptures out of soda bottles and other "found" objects.

These lessons, Cardinale says, teach students how to "think outside the box," which is what employers are looking for.

The Art Docents began when former district art teacher Emma Rau and community member Em Hopp proposed to the board of trustees that the district form a volunteer-based arts education program. The board approved the proposal and appointed Rau as the full-time paid director. She and Hopp recruited 12 volunteers and trained them to give classroom presentations. The group called itself the Los Gatos Art Docents.

The group incorporated as a nonprofit organization and changed its name in 1980, after Proposition 13 changed the way schools were funded. Since then, the group has no longer obtained all its funds from the district, but has been financed through home and school clubs, the Town of Los Gatos, the city of Monte Sereno, parcel taxes, businesses, community members, grants, the Los Gatos Elementary Educational Foundation and fundraisers. Money from the Art Docents' budget--about $62,000 a year--goes toward supplies, materials, insurance and the salary of one part-time program coordinator, who runs the organization from a temporary building on the Fisher campus.

The organization has about 90 volunteers, about half of whom are active at any given time. Most of them are professional women who didn't necessarily study art in school, but who love art and children, members say.

In addition to the presentations and workshops in LGUSD schools, the Art Docents host walks through local galleries, attend lectures to increase their exposure to art, and give presentations to preschools and community groups.

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To join the Art Docents, no art background or experience is necessary; the Art Docents take new members through a training program run by a professional. For more information on the Art Docents, call the headquarters at 408.335.2366. For a virtual tour of the 2002 annual Children's Art Show, which features artworks from most of the students in the district, log on to www.lgusd.k12.ca.us.

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