Gabriola After School Art Program

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It’s just past 3 o’clock on Monday afternoon and children are streaming out of their classrooms into the hallways at Gabriola Elementary School. But they’re not all heading for the door—about 55 students from grades 3 to 7 are gathering in Ms. Hodson’s classroom and the Art Room next door. They’re here to participate in the After School Art Program, an idea conceived by Alix Hodson ten years ago in response to the eroding of Fine Arts education in BC schools.

Passionate about the benefits of arts experiences for critical and creative thinking skills and the overall development of young minds, Alix envisioned a coming together of eager students and guest artists drawn from the rich array of talented people in the Gabriola community. She wanted to give the children access to the skills and talent of professional artists, who would share their love of art and teach the children how to use real art materials. Ten years later, the progam is thriving—a prestigious after-school activity that reluctantly limits enrollment to ensure that the visiting artists have time to interact with each student.

The format is simple. Each week, two artists come to the school to deliver a lesson—one for the junior group (grades 3 – 4) and one for the senior group (grades 5 – 7). Parent volunteers set up the rooms and materials ahead of time so that everything is ready when the visiting artists and the children appear. The children listen and watch while a technique is demonstrated, then under the supervision of the artist and parent volunteers, it’s their turn. They might be working with pencils or charcoal, watercolours, collage, acrylic paint, guosh, printmaking, clay or plaster, and are exposed to the style of the visiting artists and/or the masters.

Mary Wohlleben, assistant coordinator of the program, also teaches basic water colour skills. “It’s exciting to see the children discover how to apply a wash and use colour,” she says, “and to learn that they have to take care of equipment. They soon realize that a brush that hasn’t been cleaned properly won’t produce the results they’re looking for.”

Parents and students clean up together to leave the classrooms ready for school the next day. Everyone is out by about 4:30. Sometimes a project is more complex and is completed the following week. The results are framed and hung in the school corridors, displayed in the glass showcase in the front hallway, entered in shows and competitions, and assembled for a Fine Arts Fair each spring.

The simplicity and smooth delivery of this program is, of course, the result of the highly organized behind-the-scenes work of a core group of volunteers. Alix and Mary purchase materials and recruit and schedule the artists into Monday afternoon sessions from January to April. Susan Yeend, a TA at the school, schedules the parent volunteers, and helps with fund raising and the supervision of the senior group. Her payoff, she says, is that she gets to play with the art materials and learn new skills too. Parents, delighted that their children have the opportunity to participate in this extra-curricular activity, make themselves available each year to help.

The success of the program is evident by the long-term committment of the artists, who voluntarily return year after year without payment (they do receive an appreciation gift), by the enthusiasm with which the students sign up for the Art Program as soon as the registration date is announced, and by the quality of the artwork the children produce. Gabriola After School Art Program artwork has appeared in magazines, won competitions, and has been chosen for art shows in Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and for the “Dream Makers” show sponsored by Crayola that travels across North America.

To fund the program, Alix and her volunteers aim to raise about $3000 per year using a variety of strategies. They write and submit grant proposals and have been successful in securing funding from the Royal Bank and the local Recreation Society and Arts Council. The children get involved too, selling raffle tickets and note cards produced from art work created within the program. The school’s Parent Advisory Council purchased drying racks for the Art Room.

Fundraising for the program is challenging and takes a great deal of time. Yet, in order to continue the program, equipment and supplies are necessary and funds must be raised. Fortunately, a few committed people have done a wonderful job fundraising, year after year. However, in looking to the future and to ensure that this extraordinary program continues, those involved with the program are considering alternative strategies, such as attracting patrons who will commit to providing on-going financial support for the program.
With critical and creative thinking skills getting less time in the increasingly overcrowded classroom schedule, and the weight given to standardized testing in core subjects, Alix fears that our students are losing out. Research demonstrates that the creative and divergent thinking nurtured in an arts program are transferred to other areas of the curriculum such as Math, Science and Writing. SAT scores (entrance reqirements for US colleges and universities) show that students with four or more years of art education scored significantly higher on the verbal and math parts of the exam. Studies show that students in art programs repeatedly outperform other students in reading, history, vocabulary and the language arts.

The arts help people when they enter the employment world as well. They help us to understand relationships between people, to find multiple solutions to problems, to set goals and remain flexible as we explore ways to achieve them. These are skills that employers are looking for.

Other benefits include the development of imagination, increased self esteem, an increased awareness and appreciation for art that is carried into later life, and a means of self expression and relaxation which in itself is a valuable benefit in our hurried society. In this program, children begin to think of themselves as artists and to learn the language of art. They experiment with a wide variety of media and are inspired by artists who take art seriously.

“I really believe that all thoughts and ideas come from the creative intelligence, which needs to be stimulated to develop thinking and promote learning. To better equip our students for the future, we need to nurture creative, adaptive and critical thinking. There’s no doubt that an excellent Fine Arts Program nurtures the creative intelligence and provides a better educational foundation for our students.” The students at Gabriola Elementary School are the beneficiaries of Alix’s conviction.