When it comes to encouraging children to develop an appreciation for the arts, it’s often easier said than done when competing against video games, the computer or the Internet.
But Kathy Umlauf, executive director of the Northwest Cultural Council in Rolling Meadows, firmly believes children, especially those in elementary grades, need to nurture their creative skills.
“You can’t interface with a computer,” she said. “The arts gives them a way of expressing themselves.”
To that end, for the past four years, the council has operated a Kids Meet Art program at 23 schools throughout the northwest suburbs. Its goal is to bring art to the classroom and encourage children to be creative–a skill that can be stifled in the age of technology where questions are often answered at the click of a mouse.
More than a dozen corporations are behind the program. Each school has its own corporate sponsor, which provides funding for an artist to visit the school. At Plum Grove Junior High in Rolling Meadows, where the Kids Meet Art program has been going for three years, the council provides a list of artists along with their class topics, which then is matched with the school’s curriculum.
During the course of a school year, the school invites three artists representing art, drama or music. In the past, students at Plum Grove Junior High have found a mime artist performing his routine on top of a cafeteria table. They’ve also learned how to hand color black and white photographs and to make memory boxes.
“They get to see practicing artists who make a living from the arts,” said Karen Larson, an art teacher who emphasized that learning to be creative is a skill that serves children all their lives. “You need to be creative if you’re going to solve problems,” she said.
Larson, along with fellow art teacher Connie Heavey, nominated the Northwest Cultural Council for a service award that recognizes contributions to the field of arts education in Illinois. The council won and was presented the award recently in a ceremony in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Another council project is the Corporate Gallery Program, which provides a venue for local artists to display their work. It started nine years ago when Zurich U.S., an insurance company based in Schaumburg, decided to turn its lobby into an art gallery.
Every three months, a new artist’s work hangs in the lobby, and over the years the company has purchased about 15 pieces of art work that have hung in its lobby.
