Arts Education

THE Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has provided leadership in arts education, an area much discussed in "The City's State of the Arts," [March 23]. In 2002, the board adopted Arts for All, a regional blueprint to achieve quality arts education for all 1.7 million students in public school in L.A. County. Now six years into implementation, 29 of the county's 80 school districts are actively working toward this goal, reaching more than a quarter-million students. LAUSD, which serves 700,000 students, has committed more than $40 million to continue building its extraordinary arts education services in elementary schools.

When it comes to campaign themes, the arts can't compete with healthcare reform, national security, the sluggish economy -- just about anything you might name. But this presidential primary season, people who work at the crossroads of politics and culture say the arts have attained a higher profile than usual -- and the push for an arts agenda has established a foothold in the campaign landscape.

Can a flower be art? Tough question. Conventional wisdom holds that with money limited and so many Southern California students foundering in math and reading, few public schools can afford to teach cappuccino crowd-pleasing subjects such as art and music -- so few students can be expected to know Picasso from a piccolo, let alone answer koan-like questions about art versus nature.

Donations to United Way of Greater Los Angeles feed the hungry and shelter the homeless, but they also pad the bottom line of the city's premier opera, major museums and the exclusive Harvard-Westlake School. That's just fine with a large number of United Way contributors, because they're the folks setting many of the spending priorities.

THE mayor should take a position in support of the 100-year-old Southwest Museum, which remains as a cultural anchor at its historical location in northeast Los Angeles (Mt. Washington) ["A Patron at the Helm," Jan. 7]. His priorities as stated: bringing art to the neighborhoods, revitalization of the urban core, increased use of rapid transit and providing inspiring educational opportunities for area school children. The Southwest Museum at its current site epitomizes these priorities.

The sixth annual Professional Artists in Schools Awards, recognizing individuals and organizations providing arts education in schools, will be presented from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday in the Salvatori Room on the fifth floor of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. This year's lifetime achievement honorees are musicians Alfredo Rolando Ortiz and Johnny Mori; Colin Cox, artistic director of the Will & Co. theater company; and mime duo Keith Berger & Sharon Diskin.

In a new report, the state government arts agency, the California Arts Council, says the $10.4 million it spent over two years to boost arts education in elementary and secondary schools bore fruit. According to the report, titled "Arts Lab 101: The Results Are In," the money paid for 58 programs that brought visual artists, writers and performers into nearly 500 schools statewide during the 2001-02 and 2002-03 school years.

Twelve years of experience running an art and interior design business could not have prepared Tod Carson for this. On his first day volunteering to teach art at West Hollywood Elementary School, Carson wanted his students to decorate white T-shirts with their own handprints. But by the end of class, he had 22 screaming first-graders waving their hands in the air, red and yellow paint dripping down their arms. A few weeks later, Carson tried an easier project: masks made with paper plates.

The Entertainment Industry Foundation has given a $500,000 grant to the Los Angeles County Arts Commission to improve arts education in the county. Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Jewish Community Foundation and J.P. Morgan Chase provided similar grants, totaling $80,000. The money will be used to help school districts create programs and classes.

Elma Lewis, 82, a leading arts educator and champion of black culture in Boston, died Jan. 1 of complications from diabetes at her home in the city's Roxbury section. Lewis, among the first to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, was a mentor to hundreds of black children at her Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, which she founded in 1950. For more than 30 years, the school offered a variety of courses, including dance, drams, art, music and costume design.