Arts Council programs connect students with variety of
disciplines
The eighth-grade students in Marcia Littleton’s Gabilan Hills
class showed they have rhythm during a Friday session of the
artists-in-the-schools program.
The kids stomped their feet, pounded on the desks and ended the
hour session led by musician Emiliano Valdez with a rendition
of
”
We Will Rock You.
”
Arts Council programs connect students with variety of disciplines
The eighth-grade students in Marcia Littleton’s Gabilan Hills class showed they have rhythm during a Friday session of the artists-in-the-schools program.
The kids stomped their feet, pounded on the desks and ended the hour session led by musician Emiliano Valdez with a rendition of “We Will Rock You.”
The students are taking part in a 12-week artists-in-the-schools program put on by the San Benito County Arts Council, with funding from the Community Foundation for San Benito County, the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council. The program is running concurrently at Sacred Heart School, and there are short-term residencies and cultural performing arts assembly taking place at 11 other schools in San Benito.
“Our whole focus is to get everyone involved in the arts,” said Cesar Flores, the president of the San Benito County Arts Council, who visited the classroom. “It brings people together.”
The 12-week programs in the eighth grade classes include four weeks with Emiliano Valdez, four weeks with Daniel Valdez, of El Teatro Campesino, and four weeks with Laura Rodriguez, of Community Media Access Partnership. The artists are connecting the students with curriculum from their history classes, with a focus on John Henry, the construction of the transcontinental railroad and civil rights history.
Valdez, whose father is Daniel Valdez, has a strong background in both the arts and working with kids. He was the musical director at El Teatro Campesino for 10 years and has long worked with after school programs, such as the Hollister Youth Alliance. He is coordinating the artist-in-the-classroom programs this year.
“All studies show the arts greatly enhance the academic performance of a child,” he said. “They teach the disciplines of problem solving, critical thinking and overall creative techniques.”
Flores and Stephanie Hicks, the executive director of the San Benito County Arts Council, both stressed that the kids are learning about art using California Visual and Performing Arts Standards. But the programs also emphasize academics.
“They are getting to have fun with history,” Littleton said. “It is pretty amazing. I don’t think I could have come up with it. I didn’t know how they were going to do it, but it’s been nice.”
She added that the students have been engaged in every session.
“It’s a whole, new different thing than what we are doing,” she said. “It’s another dimension.”
Valdez worked closely with the teachers to develop the curriculum and he said when they met, the teachers all said the same thing:
“They all said, ‘All we really want is for them to care about history,'” he said. For me, you have to bring history into the now to connect with it. My approach was to hit with a theme that is littered throughout history.”
That theme is man versus machine.
From the beginning of the session, Valdez captured the students’ attention as he recapped their lesson on instruments from the week before. Throughout the talk on music, Valdez emphasized the students’ connection to history and the John Henry story. He mentioned how John Henry is a story of man versus machine, and asked the kids to share the technology they can’t live without. They listed Xboxes, Sony Playstations, iPods and phones. The clear winner among items the students thought they couldn’t live without were phones and iPods.
“So iPod is music,” Valdez said. “What is the phone when you get down to it?”
“Text,” one kid shouted out.
“Yeah, it’s communication,” Valdez said. “What are some of the other inventions created in history to help with communication?”
The students mentioned telegrams and pony express. Valdez explained how when the telegram was created, it was expensive to send them and people paid per word.
“So they would break up what they say and use short cuts,” Valdez said. “Kind of like you do with text. Again that brings us back to the beginning that you guys are part of history…the pieces of technology change, but the stories stay the same.”
As the story goes, John Henry raced against a steam-powered hammer and died with his hammer in his hand. Valdez asked the students to share the names of people who died trying to help others. One kid shouted out Jesus. Another said Martin Luther King. Another said John Lennon.
After the talk about the importance of history and important figures in history, Valdez moved on to the music lesson part of the day. He showed the kids a YouTube video of Bobby McFerrin and the kids talked about his singing, sound effects and be-bopping style.
To help demonstrate the difference between rhythm and soloing, eighth-grade student Antioco Hidalgo brought in his electric guitar. He played a rock solo for the other students in his class and then changed it to a rhythmic chord. The kids talked about the difference in how Hidalgo’s playing sounded before they started a jam session.
For the jam session, the kids used their voices, hands and feet to create rhythm and music. Valdez had them all stand up from their desks and form a circle. Then he asked them to stomp their foot and hit the desks in rhythm. Next he tried to get the kids to sing, though many of them were reluctant. He gave the boys who didn’t want to sing the option to keep the beat and soon the students were filling the room with something that sounded a lot like music.
At the very end of the session, Valdez coaxed a couple of girls into singing the chorus of “We Will Rock You.”
After the jam, Valdez had the students sit down at their desks and listen to some music. He asked them to write down a sentence or two related to the music and John Henry. He explained the students would need to write lyrics before the next Friday’s session, when they would be recording a song.
Though the 12-week sessions are just in two schools this year, other schools are getting a boost from the arts through assembly programs and shorter four-week residencies. The most recent partnership for the San Benito County Arts Council includes one with the Juvenile Justice Commission to provide a four-year mural program at the Pinnacle Court School (Juvenile Hall). Mural artist Arturo Rosette, of Art4Change, will be offering workshops in April and October this year, with the end goal being four full-size murals in the recreation room.
“We are excited to give these students an opportunity to express themselves in a positive way by providing invaluable life skills through this meaningful and artistic process,” Hicks said, in a press release.
In addition, Louise Roy, a ceramics teach from San Benito High School, is teaching ceramics for four weeks at some of the rural schools with help from the E-Cubed Foundation.
The cultural performing arts assemblies are as varied as the artists involved in the artists-in-the-schools program. Assemblies this year have included a performance by the San Jose Taiko drummers at Aromas Elementary School and by ZunZun, a performing arts group put on by Stephen Synder and Gwynne Snyder Cropsey, which incorporates music from the Americas, at R.O. Hardin Elementary School.
“Community Foundation has been instrumental,” Hicks said. “We need support from the community to help sustain the programs. Creating ongoing partnerships is key.”
Next year, the Arts Council board members and staff is planning to offer a 12-week program to local 7th-graders that will deal with the conquest of Mexico.
“The kids get really engaged from the first time to the last time,” Hicks said, of the students working with Valdez in the 12-week artists-in-the-schools program. “They are inspired. They are learning and having fun.”
Upcoming events:
April 10 – Open Artist Studio Preview Event and Hollister Downtown Association Charming Chairs/Quilt Show at Blak Sage Gallery 4pm – 7pm
April 24-25 – Open Artists Studio Tour
May 7 – Concert for the Arts featuring the headliner band, The White Album Ensemble, San Juan Oaks 6:30 p.m. Tickets available at www.sanbenitoarts.org and Postal Graphics.
May 29 – Student Film Festival, 6 p.m. at Granada Theater. Student’s ages fourth grade through college can send in their short films. Deadline to enter is April 15. Visit www.sanbenitoarts.org for more information.
