On April 13, 1971, Ellie Katz,
Head Start Art and Program Director, wrote a letter to all the staff
of Project Head Start. This is an excerpt from that letter:
"… 4. EXTRA Special
News. The Fine Arts Museum in Balboa Park has just offered us a
showing for Head Start children to be held at the Fine Arts Gallery
sometime in late August or early September… The Artists' Guild
at the Museum has volunteered to help us prepare pictures and will
frame or mount them for exhibition. Watch for the opening - it is
the first time that preschool children's art will be represented
in a major showing!"
In May 1971 the Head Start
program was discussed by the Guild Board. This letter was then sent
to Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) on June 2, 1971 from Earl Saunders
requesting his assistance with the Head Start program:
"At the May meeting of
the Executive Board of the San Diego Art Guild, Eric Bass told of
your concern about children's art activities in San Diego. He suggested
that you might enjoy supporting a project which we have undertaken
on behalf of the Project Head Start program for San Diego County.
We are planning to sponsor
an exhibition at the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego of art work
by children now enrolled in the 28 Head Start Centers in the county…
We invite your support in
one, two, or all of the three ways that follows:
1. Your presence at and permission to use your name in announcements
for the opening reception…
2. Your financial support to underwrite the cost of construction…
and permission to use the name of Dr. Seuss appropriately on them
as part of the title of the traveling show…
3. Your imagination in the designing of the units so that they are
exciting and collapsible, easily transported in station wagons…
I am personally excited by
the possibility of your help, because it will provide immeasurable
encouragement to the many children and teachers at the Head Start
Centers. We hope this is the kind of activity you have in mind."
Ted Geisel replied on June
14, 1971:
"As interested as I am
in the good work of Project Head Start, I'm afraid it's going to
be impossible for me to help you in any of the ways you suggest.
For the entire months of July and August I will be on day-to-day
call in Hollywood, where I am producing a TV special…
Nor will I have any time available
to design the display units.
So far as financial support
is concerned, The Dr. Seuss Foundation (through which all my donations
are handled) is so swamped right now trying to meet requests that
there just isn't any money available for your project, no matter
how admirable.
I'm dreadfully sorry to have
to write such a negative reply to your most cordial letter.
With best wishes for success
in your venture."
May 14, 1971 was the opening
for the first Three-man prizewinners show featuring Martha Alf,
Herbert Turner, and Marianne Childress.
Art from the Unitarian Church
show comprised an Art in the Embassies show, which ran from July
19 - August 31 in Washington D.C. From the selected exhibit of 21
artists, 15 slides were selected and shipped to D.C.
The Evening Tribune on June
8, 1971 ran this article by Naomi Baker:
Guild to aid in Head Start art display
"The San Diego Art Guild
is participating in plans for two special exhibitions this summer.
The Art in Embassies program, a service of the State Department,
and a display of art work by pre-school children in the 28 Project
Head Start Centers in the county…
Earl W. Saunders, a guild
past president, is the chairman for the guild's participation. He
is working on plans with Mrs. Ellie Katz, art and program consultant
for the Head Start Centers.
Saunders said the children's
art work will be pre-screened at the centers and the guild will
screen the entries according to available display space.
The exhibits will be on portable
units which will be available after the show ends if teachers wish
to take them to their centers. Later, the entire exhibition will
be circulated throughout the county.
Todd to jury embassy exhibits
Michael Todd, former New York
sculptor and now an assistant professor in UCSD's visual arts department,
will be the juror for the Art in Embassies exhibition to be held
July through August 31 in the Jewish Community Center, 4079 54th
St.
Participation is limited to
San Diego Art Guild members.
Transparencies of entries
(paintings and graphics) selected by Todd will be sent to the Art
in Embassies Program, Washington D.C. Selections for the transparencies
will be made there and the accepted work will be shipped to Washington
for distribution to U.S. ambassadors' residences and chanceries
in various countries."
Earl Saunders sent this committee
report to Dixon Fish, Guild Chairman, about the Head Start Project:
"The special exhibition
of art work by children enrolled in Project Head Start during the
1970-71 school year opened in the rotunda of the Fine Arts Gallery
on Saturday, August 14, 1971, with a reception sponsored by the
Art Guild. It will continue to Sunday, September 5. From all reports
(mainly comments by security officers in attendance) the show is
drawing quite a bit of favorable response from the general public,
especially family groups…
Production
Details - We can be grateful to the Economic Opportunities Commission
for paying for all the materials required and for Robert D'Hue who
designed the panels and determined specifications…
103
ART WORKS - were selected from 615 items brought in form 15 of the
28 Head Start Centers located in San Diego County…
6
ART GUILD MEMBERS - dedicated over 145 hours of time in the planning,
construction, and opening reception of the show…
Construction
Team - Robert D'Hue, Dixon Fish, Earl Saunders
Matting & Mounting Team - Ethel Greene, Robert Francisco,
Earl Saunders
Reception - Dorothy Stratton King
NO
COST TO THE ART GUILD - was entailed. Materials were provided by
ECC for the screens. Refreshments were donated by Mr. and Mrs. King.
Publicity
Received - Un-Anticipated publicity was a positive result for the
Art Guild… Several minutes of evening news time was given on
both channels during early and late reports…
In
every way, this seemed to have been a successful undertaking and
a credit to the San Diego Art Guild."
On September 1, 1971 the Evening
Tribune ran a feature article by Dawn Rogers:
Children's artistry tells Head Start story
"My Crying Picture' an
original by 3-year-old Leticia Turner, hangs in the rotunda of the
Fine Arts Gallery.
It's a masterpiece, just like
the popcorn tree, a finger painted butterfly and 97 other pieces
in the first major gallery showing of work by Head Start artists.
The exhibit sponsored by the
San Diego Art Guild, a committee of the Fine Arts Gallery, gives
adults a child's eye view of how he looks at his world through art.
'Beautiful things come out
of kids,' said Ellie Katz, creator of the exhibit…
'Children do things because
they feel things,' she said. 'They work from their needs.'
Mrs. Katz believes that there
is a need for adults to understand children's art.
Adults, she said, tend to
want to see images in children's work.
'A child doesn't look at his
art in that way. It is just a spontaneous expression of himself,'
said Mrs. Katz.
'Doing is what is important,
not what he does'…
The exhibit which began as
Mrs. Katz's brain child a year ago, has another purpose, that of
telling the Head Start story…
As a consultant with Head
Start she… designed an accredited art workshop for Head Start
teachers, and through the workshop she gathered the art pieces,
later presented to the museum.
She talked to Ron Hickman,
executive curator of the Fine Arts Gallery, who in turn spoke to
Earl Saunders, then chairman of the Art Guild, who agreed to assist
in sponsoring the exhibit…
Guild members provided the
labor and time.
The exhibit will be at the
Fine Arts Gallery until Sept.15…"
Mary Clark, Acting Head Start
Director and Eleanor Katz, Art and Program Director wrote this letter
to Earl Saunders on October 6, 1971:
"The Head Start Art Show
was a success! And to that success we owe the fine combination of
preschoolers' artwork and your efforts in organizing the show. Preschoolers'
art has a special quality which we feel you and the Art Guild displayed
to perfection. Your suggestion that a circulating art gallery be
initiated by moving screens from one center to another has been
received with great enthusiasm by the centers… The effects
will be multifold as we believe this innovation will enrich and
educate beyond our expectations.
To say 'thank you' is very
inadequate for all the time and effort you generously donated to
making the art show such a resounding success in San Diego. We hope
that our deep expression of gratitude will become evident in future
showings expanded throughout the city.
Your interest, dedication
and work is sincerely appreciated by all of us at Head Start. We
hope the future will bring us together in new and beautiful ways."
In the Evening Tribune on
September 8, 1971, Martin Petersen, Curator, Western Art for the
Fine Arts Gallery wrote this note:
Naomi Baker's work
'greatly appreciated'
"Editor: For nearly 15
years I have had the privilege of working with Naomi Baker, who
last week announced her retirement from the Evening Tribune.
Her efforts on behalf of the
Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego have been greatly appreciated. Her
endeavors have extended beyond promotion and support of the Gallery
and its activities. The entire community has benefited.
Quality in art has always
been her objective and when so much is done in the name of art,
this is no mean task. Her reviews, personally open and honest, if
they have offended, were only intended as constructive criticism
I am sure. Her integrity, interest, and enthusiasm will be missed.
I am pleased to have known
her as a friend and to have worked with her during the past years.
We hope to see her often at the Gallery."
The minutes
of October 20, 1971 recorded this announcement:
"Attendance at the opening
of the ART GUILD ALL MEDIA SHOW was 385."
The prizewinner's award exhibition
was given to Stan Newcomb, Ruth Gewalt, and Dixon Fish. It opened
on December 15, 1971.
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