It's just hours before Open House at Glendale High School, a time when most teachers and many students would be frazzled and perhaps on the verge of hysteria. But when life is a stage every day, Open House is no big deal.
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A lot of Glendale's success with making the arts a priority comes from promoting the programs in the community and applying for grants, say teachers like Mark Dugger and Grace Sheldon-Williams (below).
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In the school's Visual and Performing Arts Department, students add finishing touches to paintings soon to be displayed in a student gallery. Vases are being thrown on pottery wheels in the crafts room. Musical compositions are being written on computers. The sound of a cappella voices in rehearsal gives way to rich, other-worldly melodies emanating from the bell choir, then hot jazz riffs from another rehearsal area. In an improv theater class, drama students experiment with their emotions. Outside in the quad, sketch artists eye their surroundings pensively.
In an age when the arts are dying on the vine, when teachers have to plead for every penny and when parents have to pass parcel taxes or bond measures so their children can sing, dance, paint and perform, Glendale High has an embarrassment of riches.
There are 22 performing arts classes in the areas of dance, music and theater, and 33 visual arts classes, covering everything from art history and design to applied arts like painting, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry design and photography. Glendale High is one of the few schools in the state with a three-year technical theater program. And, while many high schools offer the minimum necessary to meet college and university visual and performing arts (VAPA) requirements, Glendale goes above and beyond.
Art, it seems, is everywhere. More than half of the school's 3,400 students are enrolled in arts courses.
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Grace Sheldon-Williams
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The school was one of five recognized by the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education, winning the Creative Ticket National School of Distinction Award last year "for doing an outstanding job of making the arts an essential part of the education for their students." Three years ago the Los Angeles County Music Center awarded the school a BRAVO Award for excellence in arts education.
How can the school offer such a menu of arts programs in these challenging economic times?
It's not because it's a rich school or because parents are spending all their time raising funds. In fact, it's a Title I school with half its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches and a third classified as English language learners.
The answer is that the visual and performing arts are a priority at Glendale. And when something is a priority, people find a way to make it happen.
Arts education thrives because it is supported by all of the school's stakeholders: Visual and performing arts teachers, many of whom have been teaching there for more than 15 years, are by nature dedicated to keeping the programs going and maintaining sequential arts learning for all students.
District support is also key. When administrators see programs as valuable, they provide more than lip service to keeping them around.
The students, 53 percent of whom are Armenian, come from families that strongly support the arts.
And the school has strong community ties, including ongoing relationships with Disney Imagineering and the Pasadena Art Center of Design. A mentoring program brings art center students into the classroom as assistants and role models. And the high school's Center for the Arts and Arts Technology programs provide learning opportunities for those who plan to complete at least three years of arts coursework.
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The difference between the arts and academics is there are no rigid answers, says visual arts teacher John Phan.
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Still, keeping the programs going is not without challenges, say members of the Glendale Teachers Association. The school is not immune to cutbacks. Teachers must raise funds and charge lab fees. The budget for John Phan's Art I and II classes is exactly what it was in 1985, the year he graduated from Glendale High. Amy Rangel, who teaches the school's symphony orchestra, concert band, advanced strings and jazz band classes, says her students sell lots of candy bars for "extras" like the cost of traveling to competitions.
Many programs receive grants that help keep classes functioning. Teachers feel lucky to have immigrant students who arrive with an appreciation of the arts and often with experience in playing a musical instrument.
"A lot of our success here is because we get out and promote the program in the community," says Grace Sheldon-Williams, who teaches choral classes, a cappella classes and bell choir. "We are also a strong team and inspire one another."
"We work well as a department and meet together to focus on the standards," says Jo Butcher, who teaches painting, drawing and sculpture. "We have three-year sequential courses that meet A-G requirements [for admission to UC and CSU]. We collaborate on meeting the standards and also work as a team. For example, our music and technology class uses drums made in ceramics classes. The CD covers for musical compositions are designed by students in art and drawing classes. We combine the drama department and the full orchestra for performances such as Les Miserables."
It helps that most teachers are artists in their own right, says Rangel, who plays horn with the school's jazz band. "All of us practice our discipline outside of school," and that helps to strengthen support for the programs.
While arts education helps boosts academic achievement — Glendale ranks 7 out of 10 on the Academic Performance Index and a 9 when compared to schools with similar demographics — that's not the only goal, say teachers. Arts education provides students with an outlet, builds self confidence and discipline, and offers a means for self-expression.
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Learning real-world skills as they sketch outdoors are Arpi Nazaryan and Anni Issagoolian.
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"In other core subjects, self-expression is limited," explains Phan. "It's like you push a button and students give the right answer. But in art class, there's not a rigid structure where everyone is supposed to have the same answer. Here, students can be creative. They can learn how to interact with others. They have the freedom to go out and walk around and look at things, just like in the real world."
Bill Byrnes' music and technology class gives students an appreciation for both high-tech and low-tech approaches to music. They can play Udu drums crafted in ceramics class and kalimbas made from Popsicle sticks that buzz and twang, or write complex musical compositions on computers. One of his students, freshman Matthew Chavez, varied the tempo from 70 to 200 to 150 beats per minute in a composition he named "Crazy."
The technical theater class provides instruction in lighting, sound and acoustics, rigging, set construction and stage management. The three-year, sequential program meets A-G college requirements and qualifies students for behind-the-scenes jobs in the entertainment industry after graduation.
In the gallery space, Butcher points to a few magnificent paintings and explains that the artist is a special education student. At other schools, this student might be assigned three remedial classes of English and two remedial classes of math each day and have no time left for art. "If that were to happen, the student would lose his soul."
Everyone, she says, has some talent to be nurtured.
Some of the symphony orchestra, concert band and jazz band students have a difficult time "fitting in" elsewhere on the campus, but find acceptance in the music room. "With so many students here, they can find a place where they belong," says Rangel. "It's a home for people who need a home. We're like a family."
"To get rid of the arts because of budget constraints would be silly," says senior Sam Smith. "The arts are an essential part of a person's development."
