Israeli dance instructor Rachael Tischler will be one of many teachers at Sunnyvale's Hands on the Arts Festival May 18.
Photograph by Robert Scheer
By Anne Gelhaus
When the city of Sunnyvale first held the Hands on the Arts 11 years ago, the festival was a response to budget cuts that were slowly gutting in-school arts programs. The event, designed to expose children to a variety of visual and performing arts, also provides adults with a creative outlet.
"It gives parents an excuse to dabble without being embarrassed," says Diane Moglen, the city's performing arts coordinator. "We've been asked many times to do an event for adults, but I don't think they'd come without their kids."
This year's festival, cosponsored by the Arts Council of Santa Clara County and Advanced Micro Devices, is set for May 18, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Sunnyvale Community Center, 550 E. Remington Ave. Children and their parents may choose from a variety of workshops, where they'll make everything from origami cranes to corn-husk dolls and learn dances from countries such as Greece, Africa and Israel. Other workshops include "Music from the Rain Forest," where children will learn to make and play rain sticks, and "Kid Vid," a camcorder-operation class.
The workshops are being taught by Sunnyvale artists and art teachers. As underscored by the following profiles of their leaders, the workshops are representative of the cross-section of art forms and cultures that festival organizers try to achieve through the event.
Mary Johnson, hand-chime choir
Johnson likes the tone produced by aluminum hand chimes, and she says she's not alone.
"Usually, people are enchanted by them," she says. "My idea was to get exposure for these chimes and to possibly get a community bell choir going at some point."
To that end, Johnson is structuring her festival workshops so that even children who have never played a note in their lives will be able to make music.
"Kids don't have as many in-school music experiences as they used to," says Johnson, who used to teach music at an area private school. "I want to offer an opportunity for that experience."
The aluminum chimes Johnson is using in her workshops are pitched like the instruments used in traditional bell choirs, and she says the chimes have some advantages over the bells.
"They're becoming a really hot item in music education because they're easy to handle, and they're a lot cheaper than brass bells," Johnson adds.
This is Johnson's first year at Hands on the Arts. She says there will be room for up to 10 children in each of her workshops.
"I'm hoping to have them play some familiar folk music and do a little something with chords," Johnson adds.
Laura Marshall, yarn painting
Traditionally, the Huichol Indians in Mexico have created colorful designs with yarn by spraying a sticky wax on a wood backing and adhering the yarn to it.
"We're doing a modified version [at the festival]," Marshall says, "simple designs with Elmer's glue. The wax is only available in the rain forest."
This year marks the first time Marshall will lead a Hands on the Arts workshop, but as an elementary school teacher in Mountain View, she says she incorporates art into her curriculum whenever possible.
"I've done this with various age groups, and it's very successful," she says of the yarn painting. "A 2-year-old makes a very simple design, and a 15-year-old makes something more elaborate.
"You don't have to be very skillful with your hands because you're just tracing a design with yarn," Marshall adds. "Instead of painting with paint, you're using yarn to give it color."
Outside the classroom, Marshall sketches with charcoals as a hobby.
"It's something I do for myself," she says, "but [artistic skills] come in handy in the classroom. I integrate art [into lessons] more than an average teacher might."
June Rhodes, totem poles
Rhodes has been teaching her totem pole workshops at the festival for five years. This year, she'll have children create miniature totem poles based on the designs of the Hadi tribe in Alaska. Rhodes saw the Hadi totem poles last summer on a visit to the Ketchikan Totem Park.
"They really inspired me," she says.
The Haida and Tlingit Indians carved totem poles out of cedar to honor their chiefs and the various animals they worshipped. They also made totems to welcome visitors to their village and to commemorate their ancestors. Most of the tribe's totems were made more than 200 years ago.
At Hands on the Arts, Rhodes has children make totem poles with a paper-towel roll, colored markers, cardboard and other scrap materials. She encourages young artists to use tribal designs as a starting point and then add images of their own families or animals of their choice.
In March, Rhodes had some totem poles made a previous festivals displayed at the Triton Museum of Art, where she works.
Rachael Tischler, Israeli folk dance
Tischler, an Israeli native, has been teaching folk dances from her homeland at the festival for four years. She says she enjoys seeing children from other cultures learning the dances alongside their peers in Sunnyvale's Israeli community.
"It's very fun to see Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Mexican children enjoying Hebrew music," she adds.
Tischler, who teaches Israeli folk dancing at a Palo Alto studio, says the steps she'll ask festival-goers to perform will be "very easy" ones that form the basis of more advanced traditional dances such as the mayim mayim and the zemesatick. She'll also be teaching them the taish, one of several Israeli folk dances developed specifically for children in recent years.
"It's [designed] to start them moving," Tischler says of the dance.
Other Sunnyvale residents leading Hands on the Arts workshops include painter Jerilyn Lightfoot, who will oversee the creation of a mural at the event.
There is no admission charge to the festival, but it costs $3 per child to participate in workshops, with a maximum charge of $10 per family. For more information, call the city of Sunnyvale at 730-7350.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 15, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.