Feb 12, 2004

Sparking creativity

Young Audiences of San Jose and Silicon Valley educate and inspire through art

By Miranda Schultz
Staff Writer

As schools across San Jose try to find a way to appease the effects of budget cuts, year after year, a nonprofit organization by the name of Young Audiences of San Jose and Silicon Valley is focusing on bringing art education to children in local schools.

Last year, San Jose schools suffered a 94 percent budget cut for art programs, drastically decreasing the budgeted amount from $18 million to $1 million. The cut left funding for the children’s art education a meager three cents per student (which is 50th in the country), far below the national average of $1.15 (New York spends over $2.75 per child).

With art programs in danger of being eliminated due to budget constraints, the Young Audiences of San Jose and Silicon Valley (YASJSV) becomes even more important to help Silicon Valley’s youth keep their minds alive through coursework enriched with art.

“You can see the children’s eyes light up at the performances,” says Christina Goodley, executive director to YASJSV, “the programs are designed to be interactive, the children participate by singing. The performances engage them on multiple levels with multiple senses.”

When YASJSV was founded in 1968, its mission was to make art a part of every child’s education. “We’re exceptionally proud of the fact that we bring high quality professional artists to the children of San Jose and the Silicon Valley. It’s really a unique experience for them,” Goodley says.

All performances are designed and presented by professional artists in the areas of theater, dance, music and the visual arts.

Last year, YASJSV reached over 178,000 students in Santa Clara County. The performing groups included 185 in-school programs with long-term residencies, performances and hands-on workshops by 55 professional artists/ensembles. These professionals come from a full spectrum of cultural traditions and art forms including music, theatre, dance, visual arts, photography, storytelling and poetry.

Currently, the organization is working with 49 schools in San Jose and will continue to schedule programs through June, for students in kindergarten through grade 12. YASJSV educates through assemblies, workshops, community programs, professional development, and residencies.

YASJSV celebrated its 35th year of operation in January, and is proud to have reached over 2.5 million children, educators and parents with its programs. It is one of 32 chapters in a nationwide network, which makes up the largest provider of arts education programs in the country.

“We believe that the arts are one part of a complete education, an essential component for a well-rounded course of studies. A lot of school programs have been cut back, so Young Audiences is a way to provide the arts in an economical way so the children still have access to that, and they learn about other cultures as well as their own.”

There are over 200 ethnically diverse art programs offered by the organization, which include education for teachers as well as students. Arts for Learning (A4L), is a project for 2004, which helps teachers access skills, knowledge and resources to successfully bring the arts into their classrooms, through live and Web-based professional development.

“One of our performances is by San Francisco Taiko Dojo, an internationally known ensemble which was the first to be founded outside of Japan. They bring big Taiko drums, and the performance has lots of interactive components like lion dancer puppets, so the children learn the context as well as the music in Japanese-American culture,” says Goodley.

The Red Panda Acrobats will perform at Hammer Montessori on Feb. 25, and on March 16 the San Jose String Quartet will perform some music by Beethoven at Graystone Elementary School. Also on March 16 Yolanda Rhodes will perform “Under the Nkula Tree at Casa Di Mir Montessori in Campbell.

In October 2003, Gary Lapow performed a program at Guadalupe Elementary with an anti drug message for Red Ribbon Week, and in December at Los Alamitos Elementary, story teller/songwriter Mara performed “In the Spirit of the Winter Holidays.” Campbell Union School District’s Castlemont Elementary School has been a frequent host to YASJSV events, welcoming The Aztec Dance Assembly on Jan. 29, and the San Francisco Taiko Dojo Assembly on Feb. 6. Coming to Castlemont on May 18 is Gary Turchin, performing, “Gary T. and his Poet Tree.”

Young Audiences has been recognized as the primary resource for arts education in the Silicon Valley and has received the National Medal of Arts for excellence in arts education. The organization also earned two Best Practices awards in 2002 and 2003 for their development of innovative programs.

They were recognized by their national organization, Young Audiences, Inc., for a new multi-media program, “The Heart No Longer Silent,” in which students encounter images, stories and poetry based on real-life Japanese interment camp experiences.

YASJSV is dedicated to its child-centered programs and committed to student learning in and through the arts for children of all backgrounds. The organization celebrates and appreciates cultural diversity, the benefits for art education for children are endless.

YASJSV’s activities can be viewed at www.yasjsv.org.