Innovative Educational Program ‘Hi Art!’ Immerses Little Kids In High Art

The Huffington Post  |  By Priscilla Frank Posted: 05/12/2012 9:54 am

Most educational programs, even those with solid art programs, portray art as a reprieve from homework and arithmetic. Frivolous and fun, art is a way to decorate the realities of learning, growing up and living. But not this program. “Hi Art!” exposes kids to opera and other forms of high art starting at toddlerdom. A bold mission, it’s true, but a hugely successful one thus far. In its 15 years of running the program has become one of the most talked-about in New York.

Cyndie Bellen-Berthézène, “Hi Art!”s founder and director, said, “Great art transmits something that is essentially human.” It doesn’t just color our lives, it has the power to be at the core of how we live. Although when I think of opera we tend to think of a stodgy, elderly woman with teeny binoculars and white gloves, at its core opera is pure human expression. The words, the costumes, the sets, all take the back seat to an indescribable momentum and feeling. What is more accessible than that?

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New York Times, April 2, 2012 

What is it like for a young girl to be uprooted from her home and sent to a new country? A poem by a Bronx high school student evokes sadness, loss and yearning.

The poet, Sarah-Kay Lemuel, is a student at Bronx Envision Academyin the South Bronx. An immigrant from Jamaica, she wrote about the experience in her poem for the Community-Word Project, which describes itself as “an arts education organization that sends trained teaching artists into under-resourced New York City public schools.”

The Community-Word Project has its annual benefit Monday night at Bonhams New York, 580 Madison Avenue. It will feature student works, including Sarah-Kay’s poem, which she will read aloud. We publish it here because of its powerful reflection on an experience shared by so many students in New York City.

Jamaica, My home…

By Sarah-Kay Lemuel

I remember leaving Jamaica, my only real home
The day was sunny and hot, I was 6 or 7.

My grandmother woke me, she smelled sweet,
Like the roses in her lush garden out front.
Even in the early morning, it was still so humid,
I remember the taste of my mother’s tears.
They tasted bitter, so very sad.
She wrapped her arms around my tiny frame.
Hugging me tightly.

Her skin was soft and smooth.
Like chocolate.
I remember hearing the tortured cries of my little sister as she
Was taken out of my mother’s loving arms.
I held her in my small arms as we drove along a bumpy road in a big White van.
Trying to console her, telling her “everything will be okay!”
My small hands wiping away the tears that streamed down
Her plump cheeks.
I watched the blur of palm trees and mango trees as we sped by.
With each mile we drove, I felt my heart crack.
When I stepped on the plane, I thought of it as a big metal
Monster that wanted to swallow me whole.
My heart shattered into pieces. The emotions overwhelming.
I burst into tears as I sat in my seat.
The pain in my chest, agonizing
My thoughts all over the place.
No more fresh air.
No more sitting in the shade of palm trees and eating mangos.
No more Mother and her gentle kisses before bed.
I cried myself to sleep that night.
I lost a piece of myself.
It was in Jamaica.
My only real home.

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/04/02/for-a-bronx-student-home-is-poetry

“My name is Café McMullen and I am the program director at the Fernando Pullum Community Arts Center in Leimert Park, Calif. We offer free performing arts classes (dance, guitar, piano, jazz band, filmmaking, and music recording) to elementary, middle and high school students. Daily I am reminded about how important the arts are and of the struggle to keep them as a part of our student’s lives. The community arts center I work at is all privately funded as of now.

Fernando Pullum started life in extreme poverty in Chicago in the ’60s, when an African-American male had little chance of succeeding in life, let alone growing up to inspire generations of disadvantaged kids in South Los Angeles where he has taught for over 25 years. This happened in part because he was introduced to the trumpet at an early age and through music was able to transcend his circumstances and go on to college and grad school on full scholarships. Many organizations and individuals have recognized Fernando throughout his career, including Oprah, VH-1 and the State of California as its teacher of the year. During that time, 100 percent of Fernando’s students graduated with a high school diploma and only one student failed to enroll in college.

As we know arts education has been dwindling away in the U.S. public school education system for some time. The LAUSD Arts Education branch has been cut by more then 70 percent in the past three years alone. The proposed total elimination of the elementary arts program would close the 133-year elementary music program and the 13-year-old elementary dance, theatre and visual arts programs.

This trend of doing away with the arts is seen as a way to re focus students on the “important” subjects. While math, science, history and the other basic curriculum are invaluable, the value of arts education is completely overlooked. The arts are closely linked to almost everything that is viewed as academically important: academic achievement, social and emotional development, community involvement, and how to work with others. The confidence, self-exploration and reliance that students experience during arts programs are taken with them into their academic lives and beyond. We are not trying to make great musicians and artists, we are trying to make great citizens.

Our next generation will need to be complex problem solvers. As the world changes and accelerates, with innovation happening at incredible speeds, we need to arm our students with ways to analyze, synthesize and express themselves. Improvisation becomes a tool that will enable them to respond to their complex and ever-changing world. Arts education provides students these tools and will help them throughout their academic life and beyond. 

As the arts are continually cut in schools and communities, the private sector needs to respond and find ways to fund these important programs. The arts serve as a way to both bond and celebrate communities. Students in underserved communities in particular need to have access to the arts, allowing for expression, interpreting, and the making of connections from history to the everyday world around them. ”

By Priscilla Frank in Huffington Post 

Most educational programs, even those with solid art programs, portray art as a reprieve from homework and arithmetic. Frivolous and fun, art is a way to decorate the realities of learning, growing up and living. But not this program. “Hi Art!” exposes kids to opera and other forms of high art starting at toddlerdom. A bold mission, it’s true, but a hugely successful one thus far. In its 15 years of running the program has become one of the most talked-about in New York.

Cyndie Bellen-Berthézène, “Hi Art!”s founder and director, said, “Great art transmits something that is essentially human.” It doesn’t just color our lives, it has the power to be at the core of how we live. Although when I think of opera we tend to think of a stodgy, elderly woman with teeny binoculars and white gloves, at its core opera is pure human expression. The words, the costumes, the sets, all take the back seat to an indescribable momentum and feeling. What is more accessible than that?

Read more…