Art smart

With school out for the summer, some south Lee kids are rediscovering their imaginations.

Forget the endless multiplication tables or dry essay assignments. What they need, they say, is some open space — mental and physical — where their creative side can run wild.

All it takes is a discarded, dusty hardcover. Or a few smooth, round rocks and some paint. A pottery studio helps, too.

They’re finding it at the Art League of Bonita Springs, which last Monday kicked off a 9-week summer session that will last through the summer.

Visual art classes — everything from self-portrait instruction, Chinese brush painting and jewelry design — as well as performing arts like movie screen tests and a cappella singing are on the schedule.

During the winter and spring months, the campus, with its studio space and arts materials, is usually buzzing with retirees. Kids take over in the summer, finding the classes a respite from the regimented structure of school.

The Art League expects an average weekly attendance of 100 students, ranging from preschoolers to rising ninth-graders, said Publicity Director Joni Loehnis.

For Kit Sanders, 14, a class on book-making was a perfect outlet for her artistic ideas.

She took an old book and transformed it into a new title, “Full Metal Phantom” Inspired by the Japanese manga, she covered the binding with fake fur, then cut a square hole in it with a gate, a small jail for tiny plastic figurines. Then she began cutting out lines from an online chat, pasting the dialogue into the book.

“It’s fun because you get to make up your own story,” Kit said of the combination of writing and craft.

“Art camp is better than any other camp,” said Kristal Cummings, 12. “I didn’t take (art class) in school this year because of all the homework they give us.

Even younger students get sparks of inspiration for projects.

“It’s all about creativity. I like open-ended projects where they can use their imagination,” said Carmen Nesbit, who teaches the “Young at Art” classes for 4- and 5-year-old preschoolers.

As her students industriously painted cut-out fish with broad strokes of paint, Nesibit, a preschool teacher, explained that art helps prepare kids for the first year of school.

“They actually develop their fine motor skills and fingers this way,” she said, getting them ready to write and use scissors.

Integrating art and academics is the wave of the future as high-pressure standardized reading, math and science tests put more pressure on Florida schools. In middle and high schools, some students have to forego an elective like art or music to take an extra reading or math class to help them perform better on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Jennifer Hambling, who teaches during the school year at North Fort Myers Academy for the Arts, said more and more art teachers must infuse reading and math lessons into art classes.

Art can also be used to help students understand other subjects, whether acting out a Shakespeare play or using paintings to learn about measurement or geometry.

“It helps a lot,” Hambling said.

For more information, call the Art League at 495-8989 or visit www.artcenterbonita.org.