Dianne Kovack didn’t open her ceramics school in Mt. Prospect with the intention of helping low-income children channel their creative energies and build self-esteem. It just happened.
It began when youngsters in the neighborhood showed an interest in her school. Located at 425 E. Euclid Ave., Clayground Inc. is just around the corner from the village’s Boxwood neighborhood, a community of apartment buildings and townhomes that has seen its share of urban problems, including gangs, drugs and crime.
One young girl who was mentally challenged especially caught Kovack’s attention.
“She came in a few times in the beginning, and I noticed she showed a real interest in ceramics,” said Kovack, a Mt. Prospect resident. “She would look at tools and ask what’s this and what’s that. When she came back, she started pointing out different tools and remembering the names. At that point, I really was interested in trying to do something for her. I had this little girl and a couple of her friends come in and just did a program with them.”
Soon there were more youngsters dropping by. These children could not afford the classes she offered, but Kovack could not bring herself to tell them to go away. A true believer that children can benefit from exposure to the arts, Kovack felt the opportunity should not be denied to them because of the financial limitations of their families.
Kovack said a young man stopped by her school one day and suggested she call someone in the village about funding for a formal program. She never got the man’s name or saw him again, but that bit of advice led her in 1997 to the Mt. Prospect Plan Commission, which recommends how the village should spend its share of the federal Community Development Block Grant funds it receives annually. A portion of those funds are earmarked to assist low-income families.
Funds are limited, and new requests have a hard time competing against established programs that have received funding for years. The initial recommendation from village staff was to deny Kovack’s request, but after hearing her appeal, commissioners came up with $2,000 to help Kovack get her program started the following spring.
“The approach not only teaches them ceramics but it encourages self-esteem,” said commissioner Michael Zadel. “It’s been my experience that young kids in a neighborhood such as the one she serves really can use that kind of a boost.”
Word about the program spread in the neighborhood, and more youngsters began taking an interest.
“My friends and I wanted to know about this place,” said 13-year-old Tomasa Montes. “We passed by and saw kids in here. We didn’t know what it was, so we came in and asked Dianne. She said she was going to do a program. She passed out these papers to us and said she wanted more kids to be in the program. So we passed it to our friends, and our friends passed it to their friends.”
Tomasa, her 14-year-old sister, Brisa, and their friends, 12-year-old Muriel and 11-year-old Maritza Vargas, joined more than 50 children from the area who took advantage of the program, which started in April and lasted about two months. Each student was assigned to create a ceramic representation of Noah’s Ark. About 35 of these arks were completed and submitted to the International Ceramics Association competition held in August in Milwaukee. Each of the children walked away with a ribbon, and more than half received a high-first or first-place award.
The arks were also put on display at the Randhurst Shopping Mall in Mt. Prospect, where the students, their families and friends could admire the creations.
“I’m proud because I know I did a good job,” Muriel Vargas said. “Even though I didn’t get first place, people can see what we can do.”
When the project ended, about 10 of the students kept working with Kovack, helping her with various chores around the school and assisting during special events and classes for special-needs students.
In 1998, the Plan Commission awarded Kovack $3,500, this time including a little extra to help pay for the extended participation of those youngsters who show a special interest.
“It was an exciting project, which is why we funded it in the first place,” Zadel said, adding that the success of the program “proved funding was not only well deserved, but that we should explore additional funding so that more residents of Mt. Prospect could benefit from the grant.”
This year’s program, which kicked off earlier this month, will create night lights depicting saltwater scenes.
Formerly an art director for a medical publishing company, Kovack has been involved with ceramics for more than 37 years. Except for a brief time when she taught the art to adults in her home, she never really considered teaching until she opened the Clayground studio, store, gallery, workshop, recreational and educational facility about 2 1/2 years ago.
In her own life, she found ceramics a help in dealing with the stress of her son’s visual impairments and even introduced him to ceramics at a young age. Her son, Don Mastri, said early exposure to ceramics may have helped developed his creativity.
“I started doing crafts at an early age,” Mastri said. “She always tells me that before I was walking, she used to give me clay to play with.”
Today, despite his visual impairment, Mastri runs a home-based animated graphics arts business in Mt. Prospect.
Kovack’s work at the school is not limited to the children of the village-funded program. In 1998, Euclid School received a grant from the River Trails Education Foundation allowing 16 4th- and 5th-grade bilingual students to take a short ceramics course.
“It was a wonderful creative outlet for the bilingual children I teach,” said Martha S. Medina, the teacher who applied for the grant. “(Kovack) is a warm, caring artist who loves teaching children and is particularly interested in the children who are in the neighborhood. These kids need a place like Clayground because it’s a creative outlet and provides a wonderful after-school activity in a safe place that’s within walking distance of home.”
Kovack also conducts classes for other organizations serving children and adults with special needs, including the Northwest Special Recreation Association, which offers recreational activity for disabled individuals in 16 northwest suburban park districts.
Kovack said she has noticed changes in the children who participated in the project, both in the way they feel about themselves and in their willingness to help with the special needs students who come to Clayground through other programs.
“They feel accomplishment,” Kovack said. “There’s no barrier, there’s no limit. No matter the age, no matter how challenged or gifted a child is, they seem to all balance out when they get into the art programs. They can produce, and they can enjoy their accomplishments.”
