Grace Maddox, the art teacher at UCLA Community School, recalls a letter that she received from a former student.
“She told me that when she came into my class and did art, she forgot about the problems that she had at home,” says Maddox, who teaches students from (7-12grades) “[She said] it gave her peace so she could go on with the day.
“I wish people knew more about how important art is for kids’ souls,” she says. “Being a teenager is tough, and a lot of my students have troubles outside of class. Art seems to diminish their anxieties [and] leads these kids to a different place.”
In the case of UCLA Community School students, art can also lead to college. On Dec. 4, the 2 annual Art Auction took place at the RFK Community Schools campus, with the goal of raising scholarship funds for college-bound seniors of the Class of 2015. The event included a silent auction of drawings, paintings, and other artwork by Maddox’s students, as well as dance performances by the school’s folklorico ensemble, Ixtli-Yolotl. The evening raised almost $2,500 and with additional donations from an appeal sent to the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies community, about $7,500 was raised for scholarship funds.
Osmin Zelaya is a seniorat UCLA Community School. The $25 minimum bid on his portrait of Abraham Lincoln was crossed out on the silent auction form, with a starting bid of $100.
“I learned about this type of art a couple of months ago – it’s called Fauvism,” said Zelaya of the painting, which eventually sold for $150. “I liked it because you get to express feeling with the colors. I really like how you combine colors that don’t really go together.”
Zelaya, who has only been painting for about a year, said that he hopes to study art in college. He enjoys creating more realistic works, specializing in rendering, and says that he hopes to combine his fine art training with a field like industrial design.
Like many of Maddox’s students, Zelaya says that his art class enhances his ability to do well in his other classes. His classmate Chelsea Reel agreed.
“When I take art, the classes afterward become easier because I’m already in a relaxed state,” said the sophomore, whose drawing,“Shoes – Inspired by Andy Warhol’s Shoe Prints,” had a very personal origin.
“We researched Andy Warhol in our class,” says Reel. “He did a lot of shoe prints, and I was inspired by that, because in my life, shoes are very important. I’ve traveled a lot with my mom around the U.S., and whenever we had to go somewhere, we always brought a [particular] pair of shoes with us. For example, we went to the beach and wore sandals. When we went hiking, we wore tennis shoes, and when we were strolling around the city, we wore flats.”
Other students found inspiration in their personal experiences as well. Eric Alejo’s “Day in Los Angeles,” a painting of the 4 Street Bridge, evokes his growing up in Boyle Heights. He took Maddox’s art class as a freshman, and again this year as a senior. He has applied to several UCs and CSUs and hopes to study illustration, fine art, or digital design. Leslie Roman’s portrait of Agnes Cesare, the school’s guidance counselor, is a testament to the impact of UCLA Community School’s commitment to its mission of turning its students into self-directed, passionate learners who are biliterate, bilingual, and who are active and critical participants in society.
“[Ms. Cesare] is a great person,” wrote Roman in her artist’s statement. “She [supports] and helps you, but above all, I admire her.”
UCLA Community School opened in 2009 as a unique partnership between UCLA Education and LAUSD. The school, located in one of the most high-poverty, underserved neighborhoods in California, provides a site for UCLA Education to test and demonstrate new K-12 practices. Five years after opening, the school reported in June 2014 that 95 percent of its seniors were college-bound, compared to 34 percent for comparable schools in the local area.
Last year, the Art Auction supported a scholarship for graduating high school senior Bryan Carrera, who currently attends Cal Poly Pomona. To learn more about Bryan, click here.
If you would like to make a gift to the UCLA Community School Scholarship Fund, please click here.
For a Facebook album of photos from the Art Auction, click here.
Above: Leslie Roman’s portrait of Agnes Cesare honors the inspirational guidance counselor at UCLA Community School.