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City News

Kala Adds Art to the Classroom

David Mills
Emeryville Connection Staff
June 2008

If it weren’t for the Kala Art Institute, many Emeryville students might never touch a paint brush or dance to the beat of Native American drums.

The Berkeley-based organization is finishing the 15th year of its Artists-in-Schools project.

The program puts local artists into classrooms in Emeryville, Berkeley and Oakland to share their skills and expertise with schoolchildren. Every year, more than 2,000 students participate.

The purpose, Kala officials say, is to stimulate creativity in children as well as expand their visual understanding and to provide them with experience with painting, music, dance, theater, digital media, printmaking and

ceramics.

“We believe children of all ages benefit from arts education,” says Jamila Dunn, Kala’s Artists-in-Schools program coordinator.

The Kala classes and after-school programs are offered at both Anna Yates Elementary and Emery Secondary schools. Most of the sessions are one hour per class per week for eight to 12 weeks.

“Students gain skills and confidence in these programs,” says Dunn. “They really come through and shine.”

At Anna Yates Elementary this semester, students were introduced to print making and painting in classes taught by Susan Wolf. The pupils also participated in the city’s Community Arts Making Day on March 15 by tracing Temescal Creek in chalk around their campus. They also sculpted a fish from willow and dogwood branches and placed it near the school’s entrance.

“It’s been great to give these young students this opportunity,” says Wolf.

The classes have ended for the semester, but during the summer Wolf hopes to install around the school a dozen plywood birds that were made by students a year ago. She also wants to get permission for students to work on murals and mosaics during Anna Yates’ remodeling next year.

Projects like these are part of the vast network of activities at Kala. The institute was formed in 1974 to supports artists in the community. It has an artists-in-residence program as well as a gallery and art library at its facility in the old Heinz ketchup factory.

The institute started the Artists-in-Schools program in 1993. Since then, it has introduced students to painting, map making, animation and traditional Indian Kathak dance – subjects none of the students would experience without the Kala program.

“For elementary schoolchildren not to be exposed to rich art experiences is like depriving them of oxygen,” says Wolf.

David Mills is a writer for The Emeryville

Connection. If you have a question or comment, please contact him at ecocnews@gmail.com