By Jennifer Best, Noozhawk Contributing Writer | @NoozhawkNews
May 7, 2021 7:17 p.m.
Artist: Meredith Morin for Forms + Surfaces
[Noozhawk’s note: Second in a series sponsored by the Hutton Parker Foundation. Click here for the first article.]
Teaching arts, participating in arts, performing, creating and displaying arts all traditionally are immersive experiences.
COVID-19 pandemic-induced social distancing, sheltering in place, school closures and venue lockdowns changed the game for more than a year, and the Children’s Creative Project was there to help.
“Carpinteria carried on, and kudos to them,” Kathy Koury, executive director of the nonprofit Children’s Creative Project and founder of the renowned I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival, told Noozhawk.
“Artists are teaching through our program largely through distance learning, and teachers in many districts, with all they have to juggle, have integrated the lessons in this new model.”
During the course of nearly 50 years, and through one global pandemic, the Children’s Creative Project has grown to provide arts experiences, collaborations and education to thousands of students in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
It brought street painting to North America, artists to underserved students, performers to throngs of wiggly children.
And as its 35th annual I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival prepares for a coronavirus-friendly virtual iteration later this month, the staff is forging ahead with eyes on post-pandemic arts education for all.
“This year, we adapted our in-person assembly performances to be virtual,” Koury explained.
“We went back to our more than 100 touring artists, and nearly 40 of them came back with virtual performances, and we’re providing funding for that through I Madonnari.”
Sponsors and participants in the May 29-31 festival typically help provide 80 schools every year with more than 400 assembly performances by 135 different touring companies in dance, theater, music and visual arts.
“This has been a tremendously challenging year for school leaders to continue to try to continue offering arts in their programs,” said Barbara LaCorte, a Children’s Creative Project board member now retired from a career as principal in Santa Barbara area schools.
“A lot of principals just kind of gave up.”
It certainly didn’t help that a primary funder of these programs — parent-teacher organizations like PTAs and PTSAs — were unable to hold their traditional fundraising events throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
Even with schools offering part-time, on-campus sessions or returning with a variety of hybrid education models, LaCorte said including arts in the mix is a huge challenge.
“Schools are bringing students back, but are reticent to have visitors on campus, so it’s still difficult to bring in our touring programs and our resident artists in person,” she explained.
LaCorte was quick to add her support of educators working through these challenging times.
“I really believe educators realize the importance of the arts, and it’s through the arts we get a lot of children inspired and enthusiastic about learning,” she said.
A 2002 UCLA survey of 62 studies on education and academics found students who engage in the arts perform better across the board. The Arts Education Partnershipfound that studying the arts developed cognitive, organizational and problem-solving skills as well as the ability to parse information from complex texts, such as those found in science and other technical courses.
“We know a lot of academic success comes from having a whole-child program where it’s not just reading, writing and ’rithmetic, so the loss of arts has really been a casualty of the pandemic,” LaCorte said.
Since its inception in 1972, the Children’s Creative Project has been infused with the belief that all children should have access to high-quality arts experiences.
In 1987, Santa Barbara’s I Madonnari Street Painting Festival brought the traditional Italian art form to the steps of the Santa Barbara Mission and the hearts of South Coast art enthusiasts.
“We, as an organization, are about sharing the art process from start to finish with children,” Koury said. “I Madonnari is the perfect embodiment of that.”
While the festival typically gathers artists painting square after square of great works, COVID-19 has forced it to be a relatively private affair. The guest artists completed their project within the confines of the Santa Barbara Bowl with viewing access provided only to the news media to help promote the work.
“It had to be an absolute secret,” Koury said. “No one could know where we were drawing, but we still served our sponsors for the square and local media helped us share the work.”
The 2020 festival shift also resulted in a revenue reduction of about $30,000 in proceeds typically generated by the accompanying Italian market full of specialty vendors.
That shortfall further reduced funding for school programs.
“We were able to pay out artists’ full contracts last year, which was quite a beautiful move by our board of directors,” said Shelley Triggs, a former CCP program associate.
“These artists were out of work, but they had committed to us. Our board was so compassionate, and wanting to be sure our artists would be all right. It’s astounding.”
While the market won’t return in person in 2021, online shopping opportunities are available. And, in true outside-the-box, artistic thinking, the Children’s Creative Project is moving forward with a dispersed I Madonnari to comply with social-distancing recommendations. Sponsors and participants are sought to fund and host squares throughout the South Coast.
“We’re hoping sponsors in Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Goleta and outlying areas, prior sponsoring businesses and individuals, are going to participate like they have in the past and keep our festival going,” Koury said.
“And we welcome artists of any age from children to professionals and practicing artists.”
Click here for more information about the Children’s Creative Project. Click here to make an online donation, or click here to sponsor street art squares for the I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival.
