 |
| Home | About Us | Search | Publications | Links | Your State | Policy | Practice |
 Walking down the hallways of this k-8 school, it is apparent that the arts flourish here. Murals of the local natural world painted in science class, and silk-screened school mascot flags adorn the walls. Teachers use dance and song to bring ancient and modern cultures alive to students. Songs written in music class are broadcast to the community via local radio stations, and student paintings hang in local businesses. Students write biographies about local celebrities. Community members help teach classes using their unique backgrounds and knowledge. This is not an arts educator's dream, but a reality at Grizzly Hill School in North San Juan, California, where the arts are an integral part of the school's everyday curriculum. Not long ago, however, this picture was a dream to the community members, teachers and students of Grizzly Hill. When the arts program at the school became a victim of budget cuts, parents sent their children to arts-focused charter schools far away and the school's enrollment declined. With the help of the Yuba Watershed Alliance (YWA) and funding from the Rural School and Community Trust, the school responded by resurrecting the arts program in an attempt to bring students back. Today, the school is transformed. It is now a learning place that practices arts and culture in every classroom, becoming a model for schools across the county -- and country -- of arts integration across subject areas. Diana Pasquini, place-based educator and site coordinator for YWA put it quite succinctly: "[This is a story] of how one grant from the Rural School and Community Trust changed the climate of an entire school." A Community Valuing the Arts Pasquini joined YWA to help Grizzly Hill enhance its arts program in the winter of 1997. Under her direction, many new music electives were offered, and a classroom was refurbished to be the state-of-the-art visual arts room. Although a wonderful beginning, it didn't feel like enough. "It was obvious that something needed to be done. This community values the arts. Not only did we need to infuse the school program with art, but we had to do something with a big face on it so that people would take notice," remembers Pasquini. The teaching team at Grizzly Hill, including Pasquini and music teacher Marc Ryan, decided to produce a holiday CD, incorporating two original songs written by the students in the school's new singing elective. A cover design was chosen through a school-wide contest; a logo was established for the school through another art contest. The CD was released in time for Christmas, and the title song, Winter on the San Juan Ridge was played on local radio stations: The roads are rutted.More than $1,500 was raised through sales of the CD to community members. "That one project let the community know what this little rural school -- and community -- could create: something of fine quality that was durable," said Pasquini. "One key to achieving a viable arts program that lasts is that everybody can own it." An Environmental Focus Recognizing the importance of integrating art into the curriculum and improving community involvement with the school, the school developed the "Environmental Elders" project. "This project uses the arts to communicate an idea; it also uses art as a means of honoring people," said Pasquini. For this project, students worked in groups and shadowed local environmentalists (such as Gary Snyder, a professor, ecologist, Zen student and San Juan Ridge resident best known for his poetry) for almost a month. The students interviewed and wrote the elders' biographies, preparing a presentation about their work that included performing arts (dancing and playing musical instruments). The students honored the elders at a community ceremony, where they presented their project and performed. The students also painted a mural about what they had learned, that included quotes from all four elders on each side of the design: "Envision a working habitat," "Nature is our mother," etc. Photos of the mural were printed as a school postcard, which sold so successfully, that it is now in its second printing. Working with the elders to understand the work they had done to protect the region, the students developed a deep appreciation for the environmental uniqueness of the Ridge, and were able to express what they learned through art. "With this project, the students learned about something in their community and can tell people about their place through their art. They can express what they feel and what they learn through the performing and visual arts," said Pasquini. The Environmental Elders project won an Excellence in Arts Education Award in 2000 for Distinguished Original Visual/Performing Arts Project, an award sponsored by the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools Office, the Nevada County Arts Council and Music in the Mountains. While Pasquini was working on this and other programs, she was careful not to rely on the "art on the cart method" of teaching arts. "That's where people come in to the school, do their stuff, pack up and then leave." Although it's important not to be self-contained and to connect with other people and institutions, she says, "it's also important for the arts to be an integrated experience and not a separate curriculum area. That's what place-based education is: not learning by reading about something in a book, but by experiencing it," she said. A Cultural Educational Experience The Grizzly Hill School is a "place-based school with a global perspective" -- meaning that the school recognizes the need for its students to acquire cultural diversity education. To do this, the school brings the world's cultures to its students by using the arts. "When artists visit, we learn about cultures in other parts of the world. Someday I might study these cultures in college and travel to these places," said Austin Dworaczyk, a sixth grader. Groups from as far as India (Gaden Shartse Tibetan Monks) and as close as home (Native Americans) have visited Grizzly Hill. The school's Native American project has received accolades from the local Title IX office, as well as increased funding to expand the program to other county schools, due to the impressive nature of its use of visual and performing arts in teaching about Native American culture. A member of the San Juan Ridge community and Native American artist and educator, Lloyd Powell, spends time at the school teaching Native American art classes. The classes cover a series of projects, including sand paintings, totem poles and beading, all with the goal of teaching students about diversity. Pasquini and Powell also hope that students will learn that Native American culture is something that happens in the present, not the past. By continuing the learning experience with visits to the school from local Native Americans who share their culture through dancing and singing, students are able to make the connection between traditional and modern Native cultures. Here, the performing arts take over and students learn another means of arts expression. "My family has been dancing for generations. I've been dancing since I was born ... Dancing is an important part of my life because I want to keep up my family's traditions. I dance at my school to share our traditions so that people will know our history and understand who I am," said sixth grader, Jessica Growing Thunder. A Self-sufficient Program Art is not just something that happens in the classroom in San Juan. Art is integrated into the community through regular displays at the North San Juan post office and the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center, among other local sites. The school and its students host "community sings," learn art from community members, design holiday note cards as a fundraising vehicle, host cultural events and work in partnership with several community nonprofits to help champion their cause through art. One instance of this is the special collaboration between Nevada County's Pet Adoption League and the school. Students worked on the program called "Woof over my Head," in which they helped build doghouses and then wrote stories about a dog adoption. The school's arts program is almost entirely funded now by the Twin Ridges District, thanks to the success of the program that started with one CD, during a winter season four years ago. Kids at the school note their good fortune: "I think every school should have singing, acting, dancing and music. Kids can have fun at school, not only at home," proclaimed eighth grader Kelli Gargill. All Pasquini can do is nod, and hope that other students have the opportunities that her students at Grizzly Hill have. "There is a part of the whole person that does not develop when they don't have art," she said. "We know how important it is to integrate art across curricula -- to use art as a medium of connection to the community, communication with one another, service to those around you, and, as a medium of" ... she pauses. "...As a medium of joy. Just joy."
Events | Services | Newsroom | Contact Us | Search © 2003 The Rural School and Community Trust 
|
