Bienvenidos and Welcome

“Every child is an artist” – Pablo Picasso

At César Chávez Charter School every child is an artist. There is no such thing as a mistake in art. Our student artwork is a unique expression of each individual child. We believe that there are five components to success in art. These same five components also lead to success in literacy, math, language acquisition and writing. They are:

  1. that each child listens to instructions and watches the demonstration,
  2. that each child takes his time in order to do his best work,
  3. that each child is patient with himself during the process and when reviewing the final product,
  4. that each child understands that the more you practice the better you get at anything you chose to undertake, and
  5. that each child has fun .

Our art program encourages each child to believe in himself, as every teacher at César Chávez Charter School believes in each child.

In the Fall of 2005, as the result of the generosity of an individual donor, funds were provided to start an art program at César Chávez Charter School. The donor specifically requested that the César Chávez art program mirror the high-quality and culturally diverse art program of Montecito Union, but with a heavier emphasis on Latin American artists.

Like Montecito Union the César Chávez art program is based on a philosophy of art education developed by the Getty Foundation called Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE). It incorporates art history, art production, art criticism and aesthetics. Our program is sequential in design and is integrated into the classroom curriculum. Students gain an understanding of art as symbolic language and of its historical and cultural context. They develop skills and knowledge of a variety of techniques of art production including sculpture, printmaking, painting, drawing, the use of chalk and oil pastels, ceramics and crafts. Students view slides, prints and original art and artifacts. They listen to lectures about artist’s lives and the culture where the art was created (art history). Students are asked to respond to the art (art criticism) and they must watch demonstrations of various techniques before creating art (art production). Finally, student and art teacher discuss personal choices and the vision students have for their artwork (aesthetics). Our lessons are often enhanced by the music, dress, food or animals from the country or culture of the artist or of the art project that we are working on.