A goal of arts for all

“We had schools that had a lot of art experiences for their kids, a lot of after-school programs, and then we’ve had schools that really had nothing,” Flynn said.

Officials have been able to turn things around with the help of the Arts for All program, she said. The Burbank Unified Board of Education created Flynn’s post, giving her the task of surveying each school to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses in arts education.

She was also able to pursue specific grants with the help of Arts for All, allowing her to pay for supplemental music programs at schools where students had not had as much exposure to the art form, and to fund a yearlong visual arts workshop for teachers at another school, organized through the J. Paul Getty Foundation, she said.

“Part of my balancing act has been to look at what’s needed at each of the sites and try to provide what’s needed to bring it up,” Flynn said.

Administrators in Glendale Unified are hoping the same access to grants and training programs that Arts for All provides will help add to recent efforts to develop its elementary school arts and music programs, Shoff said.

Elementary schools in Glendale Unified used a similar approach to that of Burbank’s schools before that district’s programs became more standardized, Shoff said.

That piecemeal, independent approach to arts education not only resulted in skewed proportions of music or arts lessons, but also did not follow an educational approach supported by California standards, Flynn said.

Students might have been learning how to paint or sing, but not in a progressive approach that focused on building skills, she said.

“If you don’t understand line and form, chances are when you get into fifth grade and the teacher wants you to do something that focuses on composition, you’re not going to be ready for it,” she said.

 ZAIN SHAUK covers education. He may be reached at (818) 637-3238 or by e-mail at zain.shauk@latimes.com.