By Linda McIntosh
COMMUNITY NEWS WRITER
San Diego Union Tribune
April 17, 2004

OCEANSIDE - For weeks, students collected old cottage cheese containers. They waited for the day when they would make them into works of art. That day came when mixed media artist Jane LaFazio arrived at the school.

LaFazio told the students they could make art out of anything. And she proved it. Flower brooches were created from tin cans, windsocks from paper bags and baskets from cottage cheese containers, yarn and strips of fabric.

LaFazio is one of a handful of artists bringing art to hundreds of children in Oceanside schools through the Oceanside Museum of Art’s Outreach Program.

For many students, this is their first art class. "We want to connect with as many children as possible and offer opportunities for creative expression," said Helen Shafer Garcia, the program’s director.

For some students struggling in school, art classes bring out talents they never knew they had. "They might think of themselves as failures but be extraordinarily gifted in the arts," said James "Skip" Pahl, executive director of the Oceanside Museum of Art.

Pahl helped start the program four years ago to provide artistic opportunities to students, especially those who otherwise would not be exposed to the arts because of cutbacks in the curriculum.

This year, four instructors from the museum’s school of art are teaching at Oceanside elementary schools including North Terrace Elementary, Garrison Elementary, Santa Margarita Elementary and Mission Elementary.

The eight-week classes, many held after school, encouraged kids to be creative through the visual and performing arts.

In one class, fourth-and fifth-graders made percussion instruments using recycled items such as plastic water bottles, buckets, wooden sticks and aluminum cans. In another class, students performed ethnic dances and made their own costumes, instruments and stage decorations from paper bags, plastic bottles and other reusable items.

In LaFazio’s class, if someone tries to say they can’t simply because they haven’t, she taps into their creativity. Two rambunctious boys were having trouble concentrating, so LaFazio helped them make vests to wear from brown paper bags. They made matching pants.

"As long as they’re being creative, I’m all for it," she said.

She has seen all kinds of creativity. LaFazio remembered one girl who put watermelon lip balm on her drawing done with markers to make it smell nice. "The magical thing is when they say, ‘I can do this at home,’" LaFazio said. "The idea is to keep the artistic spirit in them."

For information about the program, call (760) 721-2787.