Girls learn confidence, identity through art
‘A safe place to show their creative side’
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While shouts of “Goal!” are ringing in Durango, they have nothing to do with the Women’s World Cup now in progress.
The figurative shouts refer to the Girls’ Opportunity for Art and Leadership program, which ended its 2015 summer session Thursday.
Founded in 2002, G.O.A.L. addresses girls in the tough middle school years, when peer pressure and growing pains collide. Girls are nominated by teachers, and those who pursue the opportunity enjoy a two-week summer immersion in visual and performing arts, using art as a tool to build confidence and identity. The program also includes fall Saturday workshops and a winter camp.
Originally a co-production of the Durango Arts Center and the Women’s Resource Center, G.O.A.L. these days is organized by the DAC, but the WRC continues to provide scholarship funding.
“G.O.A.L. helps them find their own voice at a time when they can be criticized,” said Liz Mora, executive director of the Women’s Resource Center. “It’s such a safe place to show their creative side. It’s directly in line with our Girls to Women programming, and we love partnering with the arts center.”
Girls are eligible for the program from the summer after their fifth-grade year through the summer after their eighth-grade year.
“Many times, when they come in just out of fifth grade, they’re very quiet,” said Jane Steele, who has led the program since its inception. “They generally have an affinity for visual arts but don’t know what to do; they have talent, or maybe they just like art. It gives them confidence by trying new things and associating with other girls their age.”
“Art is better here,” she said, “because you can just express yourself freely. And you learn techniques, like how to mix paint.”
Food for thought
Because girls may come for more than one year, the theme has to change every year.
This year, the theme is “Own Your Own Voice.” It’s visible in the art, in their discussions about leadership and in the 10-minute play written by voice teacher Anna Rousseau with their ideas, which they’ll be performing at the close of their G.O.A.L. experience Thursday.
“I’ve given them synopses of women who had to find their voice,” Steele said, “and many didn’t understand what their mothers and grandmothers went through to find their voices.”
The conversations about quotes and voices have made an effect on 12-year-old Christina Hoffmann, the daughter of Charles and Wendy Hoffmann.
“They make us think,” Christina said. “My favorite quote for the day was, ‘Throw kindness around like confetti.’”
Other themes in recent years have included “Open Doors,” “Life is But a Dream,” and “Who Does She Think She Is?”
“We’ve done modern dance, the hula, drama, vocal music, all kinds of performing arts,” Steele said. “And there are so many talented teachers to draw from in this town.”
Sandra Butler, who is the education director at the DAC, handles the admissions and helps recruit teachers. Because Michigan artist Sandie Timmer was already going to be in Durango to teach a class on paper marbling Saturday, Butler hired her to teach the technique to the girls Monday.
“They’re just jumping right in, I don’t even have to teach them,” Timmer told Steele. “They’re just trying and learning things.”
Butler said Timmer teaches mostly adults.
“Sandie thought the girls were so fun and exploratory,” Butler said. “We have incredible girls this year. I say that every year, but this year, everything they’ve done has been fantastic.”
Steele says she learns as the students learn.
“I’ve learned a lot through what the students do,” she said. “They’re fearless at this age; they still have the fearlessness of childhood. Girls get more inhibited in high school.”
Making it happen
While enrollment fees and scholarships pay a large portion of the cost, Butler has to raise about $3,000 every year. This year was more expensive because they added ceramics sessions after the girls asked to work with clay.
“We’ve been getting requests for similar programming for boys,” Butler said, “so I did some grant writing, and we’ll be offering a weeklong program for boys for the first time in August. I’m excited to see how that unfolds.”