The First Annual UC ArtsBridge Exhibition, Bright Minds, Strong Voices: Art by California Children

By Genevieve Shiffrar

April 5, 2001

This year, a group of California school children received an honor that would make many professional artists green with envy: the K-12 students' artwork is being exhibited in a traveling show at five University of California art galleries.

Bright Minds, Strong Voices: Art by California Children, a collection of paintings, sculpture, digital art, photography, and video, is the first annual show of the UC ArtsBridge Program. The Consortium for the Arts, in conjunction with the Department of Art Practice, sponsors the exhibit on the Berkeley campus at the Worth Ryder Gallery April 10-21 2001. While in Berkeley, additional pieces by local children will supplement the traveling show. On April 21, ArtsBridge students will give a dance performance as part of Cal Day, UC Berkeley's annual open house featuring free lectures, tours, sports, open labs, and more.

What is ArtsBridge? ArtsBridge is a unique program bringing UC art students together with California's public school children to provide hands-on workshops in the visual or performing arts. College student scholars work with university faculty mentors and classroom teachers to devise weekly lesson plans with the semester's total curriculum in mind. Often, the UC scholars create workshops that complement other topics being taught in the classroom, such as a sculpture project with recycled materials to illustrate a teacher's science section on ecology. Other projects have included fourth grade students writing, producing, and performing a play about historical events in American history. A scholar's high school workshop combined a discussion of Dada and Surrealist artists with the aim of creating expressive self portraits without reliance on naturalistic conventions.

Allendale Elementary 2nd and 3rd grade students constructed building models from recycled materials, as part of a larger replica of the city of Oakland. Scholar: Ajean Lee. Teacher: Peter Stiepleman	Zeana, a third grader from Oxford Elementary, created this drawing after learning about line, form, contour, and gesture from Berkeley scholar Maria Gamboa. Teacher Julie Chan

UC Irvine developed the ArtsBridge program in 1996 and advocated its roll out to all other UC campuses. At Berkeley, the program has a home in the Consortium for the Arts. With a mission to strengthen the arts on campus through interdisciplinary initiatives, the Consortium is well positioned to recruit scholars and faculty mentors in departments such as Dramatic Art and Music, but also in units outside of the College of Letters and Science, such as the College of Environmental Design and the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive.

The Bright Minds, Strong Voices exhibition showcases a sample of the artwork produced and makes abundantly clear that the ArtsBridge program benefits both student and scholar alike.

A growing body of research indicates that artistic training for children strengthens their cognitive development, social skills, critical thinking, and ability to solve problems, not to mention their creativity and self esteem. In 1999-2000, ArtsBridge affected the lives of 24,000 children, most of whom were enrolled in schools identified as low performing. Many participating schools already incorporate art into the curricula, however some schools do not have the infrastructure or the teachers necessary to provide art experiences that meet the California State Education Challenge Standards. For some students, their lessons with an ArtsBridge scholar gave them for the first time formal art instruction.

Outreach is an essential aspect of the program. As ambassadors of the University, the scholars increase students' familiarity with the University of California. Sometimes, the scholars are only a few years older than the students. Students see firsthand that the scholars aren't much different than themselves--they may wear the same baggy pants and puffy jackets. Such familiarity helps the students to see the University as part of their future, too.

The scholars also have much to gain from participating in ArtsBridge. In addition to the satisfying sense of good will, they earn a $1,250 scholarship for the semester. And with special guidance from both the classroom teachers and professor mentors such as Katherine Bergeron in Music, Carol Murota in Dramatic Art, and Kevin Radley in Art Practice, scholars learn how to teach from some of the best in the field. For many scholars, ArtsBridge is the first step towards a career in education.

Michele Rabkin, Associate Director of the Consortium for the Arts, beams when talking about the success of the program: "We're proud of the fact that lots of scholars reapply to the program because they find it so fulfilling; and lots of teachers ask for the scholars to come back into the classroom".

Let us all hope that the success of the ArtsBridge program will help California's citizenry to view artistic training an essential component of our public educational system.

Bright Minds, Strong Voices: Art by California Children opens April 10 and is on view through April 21, 2001, in Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall, University of California, Berkeley. (Gallery hours Tuesday-Friday, 1:00-4:00pm.) Additional details:
Opening reception Tuesday April 10, 4:00-7:00pm.
Closing reception and Dance performance Saturday, April 21, 11:00am.
Panel Discussion, "The Value of Arts in Education," 160 Kroeber Hall Saturday April 21, 1:00pm
All programs are free and wheelchair accessible. For more information about these events, call (510) 642-9040.

If you are a Berkeley graduate student in the arts or an undergraduate with an art major or minor and are interested in becoming a scholar, or if you are a local school teacher interested in collaborating with an ArtsBridge scholar, see the ArtsBridge at UC Berkeley website.