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The Academy of Arts’ "Art to Go"
program targets at-risk youths
HOW many people does it take to turn on a light bulb -- inside a child? There's no punch line here. The answer doesn't lie in a wicked joke. Rather, you'd have to travel around Honolulu to get your answer, to Palama Settlement, Waimanalo District Park Recreation Center or Nanaikapono Elementary School in Nanakuli. Or go see Carol Khewhok at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
Academy of Arts Showcase 2004A two-part benefit for Honolulu Academy of Arts youth programs
Preview Art Sale
Art to Go!
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"Art to Go" brings together the efforts and resources of child agencies across the island, with programs tailored from area to area, tapping resources from specific communities. This answer to the "light bulb" question is, therefore, literally dozens of people.
"Art to Go" will also receive financial support from the academy's annual art, food and wine fund-raising event set for Sunday, "Showcase 2004, 10th Anniversary: Art to Go!" The Showcase Preview Art Sale precedes the benefit, on Saturday.
RAINA GRIGG, an art teacher for the past 16 years, was sent to Nanaikapono to teach a six-week "Art to Go" pilot program last fall. Nanakuli's program partnered art education with mentoring organized by Big Brothers Big Sisters, in which Nanakuli High School students were mentors to fifth-graders from Nanaikapono. The class was so well received it was extended six weeks.
"I touched on classic art history but did a cross-cultural type of art education," Grigg said of her curriculum. "The Hawaiian renaissance vs. European renaissance. For example, we looked at da Vinci for scale and proportion of the human body, and Herb Kane's representational art."
Grigg framed her lessons "in an accessible way" -- reading to the students from children's books, talking about their personal lives, about growing up in Hawaii -- "to relate it more to real life."
"I wanted to validate their life experiences as I introduced a foreign experience. And they got it and did some good work. My favorite part about teaching these kids was seeing the vitality in their eyes, seeing it click for them."
From the perspective of Matt Char and Alan Castillo of Big Brothers Big Sisters, the program's art focus enhanced the relationships between the "Bigs" (high schoolers) and the "Littles" (fifth-graders).
"The Bigs and Littles were always excited to see each other. They talked about their personal lives and became support systems for each other, all while busy doing art," Char said.
"Sometimes kids really don't know what they can do until they try," Castillo said. "The Bigs feel better about themselves, knowing they can help someone else," while the Littles performed better in school.
"Bottom line is, they keep the values they gained through this program," Char said. "They learned they can aspire to anything."
"Art to Go" is slated to continue in Nanakuli. Nanakuli High art teacher Tom Alejo, who recruited the Bigs, said the high school is investigating offering credit to students who participate.
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IT WAS several years ago that Khewhok conceived of an academy outreach program, when someone put a bug in her ear about seeking federal grants for such an endeavor. She wrote a few but nothing materialized. And at the time, the academy was undergoing expansion. There was priority for little else.
Meanwhile, the notes she had kept on the idea "sat in a file, and it really bugged me," Khewhok said. "I told myself, if I do anything before I retire, I want to do this."
When the expansion dust finally settled, a new director, Stephen Little, had taken the helm at the academy. At the same time, there was "all kinds of publicity" about challenges children faced, from drugs to abuse to physical disabilities. Khewhok saw her chance and pitched her idea again.
Little and the academy's board readily approved her bid. "It was serendipity," Khewhok said. "Everyone recognized the need for 'Art to Go.'"
Along with Lori Phillips of Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, Khewhok began to formulate a program. Philips connected Khewhok with Carol Imanaka, who at the time was with the Children's Alliance, a group that serves abused youth. Imanaka became the bridge between "Art to Go" and Honolulu's community agencies.
While "Art to Go" at Nanakuli was run by the academy and Big Brothers Big Sisters, other programs involved several agencies. Two projects at Waimanalo involved the city and county's parks department (which provided space, staffing and recruitment), Queen Liliuokalani Children's Center (transportation and recruitment), Children's Alliance (snacks, recruitment and coordination of agencies), the Hawaii Foster Youth Coalition (recruitment), the Outreach for Grieving Youth Alliance and the academy. The agencies all shared in supervising the children.
Imanaka said the various "Art to Go" projects will borrow ideas from each other. Nanakuli's success with mentoring has caught Waimanalo's attention. "We're thinking of maybe getting mentors from Job Corps next door, or maybe kupuna. It's going to be interesting out there," she said.
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IN THE SPRING, the Bigs and Littles reunited for a visit to the academy, where they toured the galleries and even got to see the academy's "Japan & Paris" impressionist show. Present, as always, were Char, Castillo and Grigg, who conducted a final painting lesson during the excursion.
Easels and palettes at hand, the youths mixed paints and shaded the fruits of their still lifes confidently.
"My favorite part of this class was using the brush to make strokes," said Kealii Waiamau, 11. "By holding it properly, (the picture) turns out the way I like it. I also like drawing with a pencil. Before, I only drew heads. Now, I can do a head and body, everything that comes with a person."
Nanaikapono Vice Principal Richard Stevens joined the group, along with a few proud parents and grandparents.
"I'm a frustrated art teacher," Stevens said as he worked at his own easel alongside Kealii. "Our school faces restructuring with No Child Left Behind, where the emphasis is on math and reading. But there's no replacement for learning the vocabulary of art.
"The arts teach problem solving -- there's no computer, so you can't erase. It teaches spatial relations -- that's geometry. Contrasting and complementary colors, blending colors -- that's physics."
The day's visit to the academy, the first for everyone in the group, including Stevens, is nothing short of a broadening of horizons, he said.
"In our community, kids don't have the chance to realize how valued arts are in our society," he said. "Here, there are rooms full of different art, and people are shelling out money to see it. It shows them the possibilities in their future as well."
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KAINOA MAHOE, 10, said his favorite lesson from Grigg's class was "texture, mixing colors." "Mixing colors makes it more realistic," he said as he painted greenery on his canvas. "Plain green is boring."
Marlene and Willy Mahoe, who visited the academy with Kainoa, said their son has always enjoyed drawing. "He knows what he wants to do; he wants to be a cartoonist," Willy Mahoe said. "My son is very creative with his mind and hands. He never runs out of ideas."
Kainoa wants to merge his talent with his spiritual beliefs, Marlene Mahoe said. The Mahoes are Jehovah's Witnesses, and a devout Kainoa invests much of his spare time in learning the Bible.
"His goal is to go to New York, where our church prints magazines and books. Do you know Watchtower?" she asks. "He wants to work there and draw cartoons for the Watchtower."
No one will dispute that children like Kainoa, with high aspirations and drive, reap benefits from art. But Grigg believes art is an especially critical tool for at-risk youths to express themselves.
"When children have concerns like 'Where will I eat? Where will I sleep?' they don't have the language skills or understanding to express what's happening to them in words," Grigg said.
"Drawing is contemplative, peaceful and private. It's independent -- you don't have to ask permission, there's no instruction. And a paper and pencil are accessible," she said.
"Just providing techniques helps children find out who they are. It's like teaching them vocabulary words, because art is language."
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