HomeSchools & YouthHMS Students Take Part in Music Center Arts Festival

HMS Students Take Part in Music Center Arts Festival

For the first time ever, Huntington Middle School students in Ms. Penny Roberts’ class participated in the ‘Students of All Abilities’ Annual Very Special Arts Festival at the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles.

The special needs students created artwork that was on display on Friday, Oct. 21 at the Music Center Plaza, where more than 5,000 students from around Los Angeles County performed and presented art. The festival with a theme of “Heroes” also featured visual and performing arts workshops, a “Heroes in Training” obstacle course, a Los Angeles Police Department police car for exploration, dance lessons and face painting by Los Angeles County High School of the Performing Arts students, mimes, stilt walkers, a disco, exotic animals from the Wildlife Learning Center and puppies from Guide Dogs of America.

“The Music Center’s Very Special Arts Festival invites students of all abilities to experience the transformative power of the arts and showcase their individual creative achievements,” said Rachel Moore, president and CEO of The Music Center. “While their performances and presentations will salute those they consider heroes, these students are the true heroes as they share their accomplishments with their peers, teachers, families and friends.”

While Roberts’ students had the option to draw any ‘hero’ they wanted, they chose real-life people like friends, siblings, teachers, principals, police officers and firefighters instead of superheroes.

Roberts heard about the festival through the West San Gabriel Valley Special Education Local Plan Area, or SELPA, when she went there for teacher training this past September. She said she informed her students about this year’s theme and helped them come up with a subject for their art.

“On the dry erase board, we did a brainstorming session of all the people who could be heroes,” Roberts said. “They shouted out or wrote down answers to let me know who they thought were heroes.”

She and her assistants added to the list, which contained approximately 30 entries from Spider-Man to a parent.

“We talked about why somebody would be a hero and why heroes are special,” Roberts said. “After we created the master list, we had each student come up and circle who was a hero to them.”
Roberts, who recently added a general education art degree to her special education credential, next taught her students how to draw people. That lesson was followed by sketching sessions when students did a few different drafts.

“It was fun drawing,” student Shanti Rao said.

“When they found one they liked, we had a session where we took the drawing and helped them transfer it onto a canvas,” Roberts said.

She then taught painting lessons to the students so they could complete their artwork.

“The painting was the part of the project that took the longest for them because they had to do the background, the person and other things,” Roberts said. “We only had limited time because we’re teaching other things at school, obviously. We had to fit it in 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there.”

She said she thinks her students did an “awesome job.” “They care very much about doing a good job so they all gave their best,” Roberts said. “What I found most interesting was although Spider-Man and Batman were both choices on the board, everybody chose real people that they know. I think that it’s neat that although those were options and those are superheroes, to them their heroes are the people in real life. It was really special.”

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