FAVA Art Teachers Look Forward to Summer Camp, Discuss Mission

Sisters and Milton residents Janet Gilmore and Karen Hainline are art teachers with Friends and Advocates for the Visual Arts (FAVA.) Founded in 2003 to supplement the visual arts program in the Milton Public Schools, FAVA provides funding for in-school art supplies and offers after-school and summer art programs for children. Gilmore and Hainline told columnist Julie Fay about FAVA’s mission, its upcoming summer camp, and why art for young people is so important. 

How did you get into art?

Gilmore: We grew up with parents who were artists, and our mother painted and taught adults from our home. We did artwork all the time; we painted all the time. We grew up breathing turpentine fumes (laughs.)

Tell me about FAVA.

Hainline: FAVA began in 2003 as a pragmatic approach to budget cuts in the visual arts department in the Milton Public Schools. All nine FAVA teachers are art educators, most with master’s degrees, and we seek to offer high-quality art experiences for the children of Milton, both after school and in the summer.

Gilmore: FAVA creates community through art for the town of Milton. We’re expanding to provide people of all ages , in the former East Milton Library building. We’re going to offer classes and gallery space, and want to be a place to showcase the many talented artists in Milton. We are working on becoming the art association for Milton.

How does FAVA support the visual arts in the public schools?

Gilmore: FAVA was created to provide materials for the art departments, and the organization has donated $20,000 over the past two years to help purchase art supplies. We envision providing even more next year, because art has been restored to a full-year program in the elementary schools. Teachers will need a full year’s worth of supplies.

We also fund bus transportation for fifth graders to the Artistic Creative Education (ACE) honors art program at . We help finance museum trips, and donated money for the installation of a kiln at Pierce during the school construction project a few years ago.

What about the FAVA summer camp?

Hainline: We started the camp last year, and offered four one-week sessions in July. This year we’ll be offering sessions on filmmaking, mixed media, modern marvels and eco-art.

Gilmore: We had more than eighty students in camp last year. Some kids participated all four weeks, and some did just a week or two. It’s for any child in Milton, not just public school students. We have art students from who work with us as assistants, so the ratio is two teachers and three high school helpers for every 20 campers.

Why is art important for young people?

Hainline: Young children have countless neurons in their brains. As they get older, connections between neurons used for certain activities are strengthened, while those neurons that aren’t used are pruned as the brain continues to develop. It’s a “use it or lose it”situation. Kids need exposure to art at a young age; otherwise, often by the time someone is twelve years old, they’ve decided they’re not an artist. That’s not from lack of talent; it’s simply from lack of use.

Gilmore: I had a student who took my after-school classes for three years. She marched to her own drummer, and didn’t seem to have a lot of friends, but she was gifted in art. I saw her talent every day in class.

We had an art show at the school, and this student and her mother were standing at the case and looking at her work. Another student came along, saw her work, and said, “I didn’t know she could draw!” And my student just lit up. It was a major boost for her, and she really has blossomed now, participating in the ACE program and really having a chance to shine. Without her participation in FAVA, I don’t think her talent would have been recognized.

Hainline: There are lots of kids like her who need the artistic outlet and opportunities, and the 90-minute after-school program and the three-hour daily summer camp gives them time to explore art in depth, and to build on what they learn in their art classes during the school year.

Why do you do it?

Gilmore: No one knows what they’re talented at until they try. The process is more important than the product. I tell the kids in my comics class, keep your pencil moving, because the more you draw the better you’ll get. To see these young artists find something they love and develop their skills is gratifying, and it makes us feel like we’re making a difference.

FAVA classes are offered after school at ,   and Schools. For more information about FAVA and the upcoming summer camp, visit www.miltonfava.org.