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ART IN THE SCHOOLS —
THANKS MISS BEA!
Astoria Visual Arts, Astoria High School and Knappa High School
have partnered to increase students’ skills in the visual arts
By CATE GABLE
he Gift of Art
As painter and
miniaturist Noel Thomas
says, “I think we’ve done
a disservice to our chil-
dren. When the budget
needs to be cut, art and
music are the first things to go.”
But this year, Noel and his wife,
poet Patricia Staton Thomas, are
part of a group supporting a com-
munity arts project that delivers
the gift of art to Astoria and Knap-
pa high school students.
The seed of this gift for the ages
all started back when Noel was in
school. “I had an eighth grade art
teacher, Miss Bea Johnson, an itty
bitty feisty thing, full of energy,”
Noel says. “And on my last day
of school in Longview, she came
up to me and said, ‘When you’re
through with high school and girls
and cars and all of that and you
start settling down, I want you to
go to the Los Angeles Art Center.’
I didn’t know it at the time, but I
really filed that idea away.”
In fact, both Noel and Pat have
pursued lives with art at the center.
As Noel tells the story, “At a really
depressed moment, lying in my
bunk in Germany in the Army, I
started thinking, what do I really
want to do? And Miss Johnson’s
voice came back to me out of the
gloom — ‘go to the Los Angeles
Art Center’ —and that’s just what
I did. And I’ve been in art ever
since.
“I did go to the LA art center,”
he says. “Then I went into ad-
vertising to pay off my debts, but
one day here about 30 years ago I
said to Patty, ‘If I’m ever going to
do this, I better get at it.’ We cut
back on our other work and started
doing what we wanted to do.”
Pat decided she wanted to
pursue poetry, and Noel began
PHOTO BY DANNY MILLER
Claude Kurtz, owner of Fernhill Glass Studio in Astoria, spreads green col-
ored glass on a table to add to a creation while helping high school stu-
dents during an art workshop.
PHOTO BY DANNY MILLER
Greer Sund, a senior at Gray Alternative High School, works on a glass cre-
ation at Fernhill Glass Studio during a Community-based Arts Programming
for Teens art workshop in late October.
painting. Five years ago they start-
ed the Miss Bea Johnson Fund for
Young Artists from their art show
proceeds.
So, with seed money from the
Miss Bea fund, a generous grant
from the Oregon Community
Foundation, and the support of
the Astoria Visual Arts board and
members, the Community-based
Arts Programming for Teens
began.
“The program is coordinated by
artist and educator Miki’ala Souza,
who is working with Astoria High
School art teacher Mickey Ceregh-
ino and Knappa High School art
teacher Janet Sheridan to expand
the art opportunities for students,”
writes AVA board vice president
Lisa Smith. “Our goal is to give
our local students increased expo-
sure to the visual arts, both in the
classroom and with outings and
excursions to museums, galleries
and artists’ studios.”
Art in the Real World
Program coordinator Miki
Souza has a Bachelor of Fine Arts
in painting from the University of
Oregon, and an Master of Arts in
education from Western Oregon
University. She knows the impor-
tance of both receiving arts educa-
tion and seeing art first hand.
“I’ve been hearing such great
feedback from teachers and parents
‘THEY GET TO GO SEE WHERE OTHER ARTISTS
WORK, THEY GET TO THINK OFF THE PAGE,
OUTSIDE OF THE BOX. THAT’S HUGE!’
For more information about the Oregon
Community Foundation: www.oregoncf.org
of the students about how they’ll
come home at the end of the day,
after one of our classes or outings,
and start talking about how amaz-
ing the day was,” Miki says.
She was thrilled in late Octo-
ber to be able to take 21 students
from Knappa High School, Astoria
High School and Gray Alternative
High School to visit Fernhill Glass
Studio in Astoria for quarterly art
workshops up close and personal.
“At Fernhill our students got
to blow glass, handle liquid glass,
choose colors and be up near the
furnaces,” Miki says. “They each
got to make a piece of art to take
home, and they were so proud of
what they made. It was great! A
lot of these students are probably
going to continue to make art after
school. And it’s just this kind of
opportunity to do something that’s
a little more in depth, outside of
the norm, that inspires them.”
On Dec. 2, Gray School stu-
dents visited Clatsop Community
College’s art department on a field
trip to learn about printmaking.
Future printmaking workshops
are planned at the college’s art
department for more of the high
school art students taking part in
the program.
Coming up in 2017
“They get to go see where
other artists work, they get to think
off the page, outside of the box.
That’s huge!” Miki says. “Next
year, we may get to go to Seattle
for an overnight to some galleries
and museums. We’ll probably go
on the train — that in itself will
be new for many of our students.
Some of them may have gone to
Portland, but going to Seattle — a
little bigger city — that will be
exciting.”
Other aspects of the program
Continued on Pg. 9