CSMA selects 30 local students to display artwork in exhibition

By Clyde Noel, Town Crier Staff Writer

Clyde Noel/Town crier Local art critic Carol Dabb presents Liam McCarthy a blue ribbon for his artwork, on display at Main Street Cafe & Books in Los Altos as part of the Arts in Action program sponsored by the Community School of Music and Arts.

Thirty aspiring local artists, all under the age of 13, got a taste of what it’s like to display one’s work in public last week. As winners of The Arts In Action program sponsored by the Community School of Music and Arts, their works are on exhibit at Main Street Café & Books.

The winners and their parents were treated to a root beer float party last week as they walked around the café admiring their own work hanging on the walls. All of the artists are students at Springer elementary or St. Nicholas schools.

The works, which include dipictions of birds, a sun burst, Egyptian figures, portraits and pets will be on display through Sept. 8.

“This is not just another project in school. The kids were given this opportunity to display their art,” said visual arts director Linda Covello about the program, intended to foster an appreciation of art among the young.

The Community School of Music and Arts serves more than 10,000 students a week during the school year and has provided arts education to more than 325,000 Bay Area students since it was founded in 1968. With the passage of Proposition 13, many public schools lost funding for their arts programs. CSMA filled that void.

The Arts in Action program provides weekly hands-on instruction in art practice, theory and history at the school sites.

Local art critic Carol Dabb presented a blue ribbon to one artist in each age category.

Springer fourth-grader Natasha Samari won Best of Show for her animal watercolor.

“She rendered a little animal to be really cute. Even though it is stylized, we don’t know what kind of animal it is, but she gave the little critter a personality,” Dabb said.

Other blue ribbon winners are: Liam McCarthy, Grade 1, St. Nicholas; Susan Lang, Grade 3, St. Nicholas; and Rachel Plasterer, Grade 5, St. Nicholas. In addition to the ribbons, the Los Altos Cultural Association gave cash prizes to the winners.