Young Audiences program explores kids' dreams
| Wednesday, Aug 10 2011 05:07 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Aug 10 2011 05:19 PM
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Young Audiences Workshop "Turning Dreams into Goals" at Summer Camp Bethel in Frazier Park
Young artist Ben expresses his dream is to be an athlete in a work for the Young Audiences workshop in Frazier Park.
To have a dream of what you want to be when you grow up is a good thing, and Nicole Saint-John of the Arts Council of Kern helps young people explore ways of expressing their desires using one of the programs designed by Young Audiences.
A few weeks ago she was in Frazier Park, working with 20 middle-school-age children who were attending Camp Ozone. It involved, among other things, having the kids sketch out a cartoon-like cloud on a large piece of newsprint.
"We talked about what each one wants to be," she explained, "and then we talk about learning what to do to take the next step to reach your dream."
Occasionally, Saint-John tells students about the steps she took to realize her dream of coming to the United States and becoming a recognized artist.
"I tell them about growing up in the shadow of the Berlin Wall during the Cold War," she said. "I was born in Hamburg, in the western sector, but my mother and grandmother escaped from Leipzig in East Germany -- thankfully that was before I was born."
Her family wasn't rich and money was scarce, she said, but they were hard workers.
"My father was a gardener and he used to say that as a boy there were so many in his family he had to eat standing up because there weren't enough chairs," she said. "But I think maybe it was a joke."
Saint-John found a way to earn money to attend college. Later she became a partner in a music software products company in Hamburg and designed labels for its products. The company had an office in Los Angeles and when the opportunity arose, she moved there. As an independent artist, her fine art work has been shown nationally and she has won several awards. About 10 years ago she moved to Bakersfield, mainly because housing was less expensive.
Presently she is director of visual art programs for the Arts Council and over the past two years has attended seminars and conferences in various parts of the country to qualify as a teaching artist in the Young Audiences program and to mentor others who want to teach in the program.
"The standards are quite high and you have to go through a screening process to qualify," she said. " As the program director, I received training at the Young Audiences workshops in Portland, Indianapolis, and New Orleans, including the Young Audiences Art in Education National Leadership Institute. This training was one of the most intensive and effective training programs I have ever been part of."
The Arts Council's goal is to offer the Young Audiences programs to all students of Kern County. This year, from January to June, the council has reached 3,888 students in 21 different projects held at 17 different venues. The project is being funded by a sizeable grant the council received from an anonymous donor and was coordinated by the Kern Community Foundation. The programs are presented at the request of schools and school districts.
Saint-John is one of 19 Young Audiences-approved teaching artists who will participate this year. Only four are local residents and she invites professionals in all areas of the arts -- music, dance, theater and visual art -- to contact her if they are interested in being considered for training. She can be reached at the Arts Council office by calling 324-9000.
"Recently we trained four mentor artists to mentor students with Asperger's Syndrome and/or high functioning autism to teach an arts-supported learning program with a social skill and a literacy component," she said. "This program was partially funded by the Bakersfield Californian Foundation -- Bakersfield and Ridgecrest are the communities where the program has been implemented so far."
Young Audiences was founded in 1952 and is the nation's leading source of arts-in-education services. The goals of the organization are to help make the arts an essential part of young people's education and to advance the artistic and educational development of children and youth by bringing them together with professional artists of all disciplines to learn, create and participate in the arts. The local council has been affiliated with Young Audiences since 2009.
