Children’s Art Displays Mix of Cultures, Ideas

NEWPORT BEACH â€”  To Helen Seigel, the only thing minor about the young artists exhibiting in “Major Art, Minor Artists,â€� is their size.

“This isn’t the usual art-on-the-pegboard stuff you might whiz by in the mall,� said Seigel, one of the show’s three adult coordinators. “The works are inspired by contemporary art. There are multicultural references. It’s an incredible mix.�

“Major Art, Minor Artists� features more than 400 two-and three-dimensional works by kindergarten-through-fifth-grade students in six Santa Ana schools. The exhibit continues through Tuesday in the gallery of the Art Store in Newport Beach.

Featured in this year’s show are students from Lincoln, Jackson, Remington, Washington, Grant and Monte Vista schools, all participants in the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Special Studios series, an offshoot of the district’s Artists in the Schools program.

Now in its 11th year, “Artists in the Schools� offers visual arts training to students in the district’s 26 elementary schools. Each year, six schools are eligible for the more intensive Special Studios classes. The program, and the exhibit, is coordinated by Seigel and fellow artists Kim Burke and Joycelyn Dixon.

Seigel says she is pleased with the progress she has seen in her students.

“The kids we’re working with are pretty unlikely to go to private art lessons, so we know we’re bringing them something they might not otherwise have,� she explained. “It’s important that we give them access to the world of art. They don’t have to grow up to be artists, but we want them to be able to appreciate it, to see that art doesn’t have to be an elitist activity.

“Our goal is to try to help them do more than, say, just draw a nice bunny,� she continued. “We give them exercises to help them think and learn, to make decisions. For them, that has the same power that art has for us as grown-up artists.�

An example of this are “value totems,� an exercise in which the instructor asks the students to make a list of five things or ideas that are important to them. The children illustrate those ideas in colored pencil, stacking the images in a totem-pole style according to their priority. Value totems by students at Remington and Washington school are among the works on display, and they reveal some surprising combinations. In one drawing, a student topped her totem with a glowing yellow cloud, supported by a box of watercolors, a trumpet, a homework assignment and a dollar bill. The child explained to Seigel that the images signified God, art, music, spelling and money.

Students at the Jackson school brought a centuries-old symbol into the ‘90s with their Glitter kimonos, construction paper kimono shapes decorated with glittering designs ranging from florals to Batman insignia. Pop culture was wed with traditional Mexican folk art in a yarn painting of a Mutant Ninja Turtle created by a student at the Washington school. And youngsters at Grant and Monte Vista paid tribute to 20th-Century abstractionist Wassili Kandinsky with a series of fan-folded works in colored pencil and crayon.

“Major Art, Minor Artists V� continues through Tuesday in the gallery at the Art Store, 4040 Campus Drive, Newport Beach. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Call (714) 250-7353.