Going to the Arts Store : School Delegations Seeking to Hire Performers Visit Music Center Showcase

The PTA at Hidden Springs Elementary School in Moreno Valley has $1,000 to spend on arts enrichment, hard-earned cash scraped together through a year’s worth of bake sales.

So on Wednesday, the parent group sent a delegation of five teachers to Los Angeles to bargain-hunt at a talent swap meet: the Music Center’s annual showcase of the arts, a chance for hard-pressed schools to hire a bevy of artists to perform at their schools.

From early morning until well past noon, hundreds of teachers from throughout Southern California wandered from booth to booth outside the Music Center, sampling the work of 100 traveling artists, storytellers and performers from around the world.

“I like to say it’s one-stop shopping for the arts,” said Alison Cotter, who helped put on the event with the Music Center’s Education Division.

At a time when public schools are cutting budgets and arts education is in danger of becoming a luxury, the showcase gives teachers and parents an opportunity to bridge the gap at relatively low costs. Ten years ago, 100 schools turned out for the event. On Wednesday, there were about 400.

“We’re looking for something all-encompassing at a fair price,” said Donna Saldin, one of the Hidden Springs teachers sent to the showcase. “The school has zero money. But with the PTA money, we’re hoping to give the kids a hands-on experience in the arts.”

Some of the selections to chose from: a Los Angeles artist who will help youngsters design and paint a mural on their campus (at a starting price of $90 per visit), a group of dancers who will introduce children to the native music of the Philippines ($450 per performance), and a troupe of storytellers who share poems and folk tales ($310 and up).

Among the most popular performers were a dance troupe from Brazil and a theater group--called Faustwork--that uses unusual masks in their performances. (Starting costs: $625 and $575, respectively.)

Barbara Egbert and Joe Jordan drove in from an elementary school in Lake Elsinore, hoping to sign up several musicians to perform for the students.

“The arts are the kid-grabbers,” said Egbert, whose school was hoping to spend $6,000 to $8,000, depending on what administrators would make available. “It’s what makes them want to come to school.”

Added Jordan: “It’s wonderful. In the area we live in, the kids never have the chance to got out and see these kinds of performances. This opens a door to them.”

The Music Center used a competitive process to choose which of nearly 200 artists were allowed to put their talents on display.

“You are seeking seeing absolutely world-class excellence,” said Lindsey R. Nelson, one of the event organizers.

The traveling shows, he said, stimulate “different ways to approach learning and fosters for the multiplicity of cultures. Increasingly schools are seeing the importance of this.”

Musician Jim Berenholtz, who is part of a group that performs music of the rain forest, said he sought to participate in the school workshops because he likes the idea of helping educate children about other parts of the world.

“We are very concerned about the rain forest and the way it’s being destroyed,” Berenholtz said. “It needs to change and we wanted to bring that strong message to the children.”

Some of the schools come to the showcase with only $300. Others have up to $30,000 to spend, with the help of donations. Starting this year, the Music Center offered $25,000 grants to two schools--one in Sunland and one in South Los Angeles.

“We felt that because a lot of our kids live in the inner city, they don’t get the opportunity to see a lot of the artists that are out here,” said Cathy Tomyoy, a teacher at Virgil Junior High School, the south Los Angeles school selected for the grant. “When you talk to our kids, they have the ability to draw, but they don’t realize that they could grow up to make a living at this.

“We think that this will at least broaden their world of knowledge.”