leadership || circus

National Art Education Association

CircusAuthor(s): George SzekelySource: Art Education, Vol. 48, No. 4, Leadership (Jul., 1995), pp. 44-50Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193549 .

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BY GEORGE SZEKELY

INTRODUCTION Alittle blue toy truck was on my

mind. After all, it was my birthday, even if the world above us was going mad. Huddled in the cellar, with Soviet tanks parked over our heads, I was dreaming of toys in the midst of the Hungarian Revolution. Children's concerns and interests cannot be put aside, just because they sit under a revolution. During a quiet spell, between shellings, my parents went to look for bread and for the truck I vividly described. Don't ask me why a toy store would be open during a revolt when even food stores were boarded up. My dad described the empty store shelves, dust and bullet scarred. And there sat my little blue truck. During our hiding, I fantasized elaborate settings and adventures for

my toy, not letting it go for a moment. When we arrived in Vienna, it was as

if someone had filled to the brim the toy shop of my dreams. Here were the greatest toy stores in the world, their window displays a feast for the imagination of a young refugee.

Later, as an art student in New York, I cherished the visits to my teacher's studios. It is not their art that I recollect, but the dolls on the shelf in Diane Arbus' studio, or the space toys and toy banks on other studio shelves.

On weekends, my parents and I would go to museums. I liked the escalators, gift shop, and, of course, the cafeteria. Not because I was especially hungry, but next to the cafeteria at the

Whitney was my favorite toy shop window. All 1100 pieces of Alexander Calder's circus, complete with sets and performers, were on exhibit here. Calder, whose career began as a toy designer, built the circus as a lifelong project and a continuous performance. A film place next to the showcase showed Calder's animated face and lively inventions. Calder loved making the pieces, as much as he loved playing with them. As a child, my favorite show was Bilicsi Tivadar's Circus. What was so interesting about this Saturday morning program? It was a live radio broadcast from the Hungarian National Circus that sent pictures directly to my imagination.

I was a freshman art teacher when I

ART EDUCATION / JULY 1995



learned about Calder's death. My fond memories of Calder's Circus helped me decide that the "show must go on." I started my first performance in Bedford Stuyvesant, the poorest school district in New York where I went to teach. My toys went along, and the circus brought joy to many sad lives. Toys from my childhood collection as well as the latest fast food restaurant find, became my art supply. They were tickets to fantasy and art dreams. They created an immediate connection, a bond and a way to reveal the sources of my art world. The children immediately understood that someone cared about their interests. It opened their pocket secrets, and I became a trusted individual to whom children could show and tell about their finds. What is more important in art teaching than the sharing of interests between artists?

I start each art lesson by playing with children. Can you teach art without having played with kids? In our play space, we may set up a train, an imaginary marble track, and on special occasions, roll out the circus. Kindergarten rooms usually are filled with fun stuff, but what happens later? Children's play things are carted away, drawers and closets no longer welcome browsing, and children's treasures are not allowed in school. Where are these creative collectors and treasure seekers supposed to bring their stuf? My home is a toy store; my classroom in school is its closest branch, where fun things can be brought, displayed, and explored.

My first circus with children was captured on black and white Super-8 film. The old films show how kids create faster than adults can dream and construct. The circus demonstrates kids as multi-media action artists, performing artists, dress-up and dialogue artists. It is a document of children's art, rehearsed through many hours of playing with dolls and toy soldiers. Even though the films are silent, we notice artists talking to their

art and to each other, discussing events and ideas. Putting their work to rest in portfolios is not the way it works. Performances and ideas can't rest until they are thoroughly shared.

One day, Emmett Kelly, the legendary clown, came to Public School No. 157. His bright red and yellow image popped up everywhere, against the grayness of the old school. His laughter and life opened up the black bars which covered all of our windows. When a special person, such as an art teacher, comes to school, the setting should never be mundane. We need to make every school a fun place where neither art nor life is ordinary.

When children play in our circus, they feel it is their own lesson. Seldom are we asked, "Is this right?" "Is this what you want?" Instead they say it doesn't feel like an art lesson, but more like an afternoon of playing at home. Children speak of art as inventing. They enter school with a vast variety of creative abilities, but often yield their experience to school art, which becomes just another subject to learn from adults. Circuses, meanwhile, depend on children's fun stuff, and are fueled by their ideas. This is where children find their artist-player selves. Some say, "but playing is not a school thing to do!" It is, however, a very important part of the development of the child artist and how they build their ideas.

As a veteran of the circus, I am asked frequently to give lectures all around the country. My hosts are always surprised that I arrive with funny trunks and big suitcases, instead of a speech in my pocket. At heart, I am a circus man. I have found that, as a speaker, teddy bears make me feel less nervous. They break down walls between me and my audience. When I bring out the toys, there is nothing but smiles.

JULY 1995 / ART EDUCATION



ART LEARNINGS FROM THE CIRCUS

A balloon bike tire paintedflaming red is held up by two clowns. Drum rolls or pots and pans from our circus band taps out the movesfor the peformers. Center stage, inside a hula hoop, is George, the frizby head lion with wooden clothes clip

hair and gold scouring pad mane. Enthusiastic applause greets each act announced by a ring master wearing a top hat and stickers on hisface.

As a young art teacher, the circus was my favorite session. We all have our best lessons, and often they originate at the beginning of our careers. I use the

circus to start a new school year with a sense that this class will be like no others. At the end of a year, the circus becomes a departing celebration. Sometimes, I introduce the circus during the year, when we need a fresh start. The circus even serves as my informal evaluation, a standard applied

to other lessons. I look at children's faces as they come into the art room at the start of a lesson. Are the kids as interested, as excited, as when they enter to find the circus?

From the circus, I learned about children as performance artists.

Available: Out of Work Players to perform in your art class. These

v~, experienced artists and show

people long ago stopped dressing up, putting on make-up, or borrowing adult clothes. Play

time and opportunities vanished along with toys and finds. What are experienced animators, directors, designers, producers, dress up artists to do? Have they lost interest, or just confidence? Are their youthful art forms unwelcome, or not even considered art?

In art classes filled with shading, perspective and gesture drawing, is there room for children's art?

A cast of thousands; soldiers, Barbies, and flying blue horses were often directed by Cecil B. DeMille's in night shirts or pajamas from high atop a pillow. Landings and invasions on::.......... couches and bean bags, B13bie aeMlbics classes and tea parties u der rol UBl op desks involved elaborate scenes and setups in which children caed the shots, made the moves, set the scenes:ii and carefully cast performers. These directors and former membei ioflthle players' union also made up instant . I scripts by talking to and through the figures they directed. .

These experienced producers are now in your art class. Th:iused to gather stars from the boltomof t :::

boxes and senc out casti :

calls to all parts ofqthe house. : After rounding Cp all available extras, they mae the X : necessary costLn es fromir napkins or alurr mum foil. With cannons made mf:o h.-ir curlers and furnishings rom Legos, they setip their stes on the arm of gandma's :ld recliner, or on beanbai mountain tops., Chfilren who routinely laid ot incredible settings, arranging each counter top in taeir rooms

over and over again with ifiaginative displays, have built up ta ents which now lie unutilized. Never afraid to ake anything and fnE I:eWj uses for any :ii:': household o ject, these environmental shoppers nW come to school and say they have no ideas.

What ar experienced aimators of objects to do when at every turn they are told not totouch, to stop playing? The real Geppes, who used to bring :: life to any objectin :tehouse and :giv.:|e:.




action to action figures, quickly adjust to mechanial.....hol moves and pencil pu sh:PE..Ei Ei:ng

: routfin:i.Wen one stops- piaying with everythgi-:: one's hands, the results are visible n e the art surface. Yet, sometimes, in secret, in special off Broadwayishows, children perfi . withsan dwi hes and raisin figures

:en. E ' E:Ei S hidden in their lunchboxs-seec.et places where art is not ofiimits.i . ..' ......Children who used',t add soui d : :~i'~ii ...... tracksto. their, py and were experts at hamesing environmental noises or:: imitating commercials now have few opportunities to sound their talents. Lighting artists who used to form evocative shadows on the wall or under cover during sleep time have long laid their flashlights to rest. Would you employ these talented kids in your art class, recognizing and furthering their talents? The older the performer and farther removed from playing, the more starved they are for this experience. Performance artists need preservation in the art class.

The Academy Award for creativity has to be handed to children who perform in our circuses. To experience it live, there is no doubt that children's animating, transforming and performing with environmental objects is a significant art form. In plays with figurative toys-dolls, soldiers, trolls, or circus figures-children develop a unique art and a link to adult figure works. They learn to line up soldiers in a variety of formations, grouping figures for battles and peaceful events, assembling them in a variety of scenes and settings. When I was a child, toy figures stood straight and still; soldiers were made from plaster, horses from tin. Today's figures of rubber and plastic are highly bendable and flexi-jointed, ready for posing. We build our circus out of the most flexible materials to include the posing arts.

The timeless art form of dressing and animating the figure as a living canvas is another part of children's multi-media figure work.

A torn, but handsome shopping bag cutain is held up tohi;dsurprisingas:: uInder aAi ;tchetaile. Jsephne, the th headed juiggler, is rotated o a pte stae. pcornfae audiences;, :i- i.. . ..R iE R ..........i i ii ?:

pr'eions ainted on: with: poi:ned markers, ari set up on a::er ae odes.. Home finds and SMaces ,are:magina- tively converted to if: ow.

The Circus Taught Me to Set the Stage, to Design Art Rooms as Invitations to Creative Playing.

Circus children who are allowed to take charge of their room move furniture, convert spaces and begin to see the room as filled with possibilities. They find infinite uses for tables, chairs and garbage cans. Once you turn the school desk over, or flip a chair on its back, using it as a cave or a sled, the attitude toward all classroom objects is altered. Objects in the room should be recognized as props for playing and inventing. As class chairs are pulled away from tables, students are released and free to move as individuals, untied and ready to explore. Every book, bag, cart, or shelf becomes a prop, a multi- purpose supply.

With teachers in training, we make secret calls on children's rooms before they are cleaned and reordered for company. We examine the designs of Halloween candy set upon a geometric carpet and the layout of a domed baseball stadium under a bed. Encyclopedia sky-scrapers, blanket- covered chair tents instruct us on how to set up school rooms to be more like rooms in home experiments. When children feel comfortable in an environment, they eagerly convert it into play settings.

The circus was the first lesson I started on the floor, and that is where most lessons now play. School tables are writing spaces, testing and work spaces. Children don't need prompting to get down on the floor where they are used to mng with ills, osimassing troops. A: :ome, chiL':en setup floor . anvasses called "a mesgomo" by prents.

The ,, r foofoor ithe la t flat canvas: o: whic chfldln can diay ideas. Layered with papers, pla-ascst or fabrics, a floor mayfeel like :-pond, a frozen skating rink, or an inviting picnic spot-or, of course, a stage to perform on. Colleagues pass by my room each morning and say, 'There goes Szekely, moving again," I am simply clearing the floor, preparing a fresh canvas for the day's players. They play by crawling under tables or umbrellas, spreading out on blankets or rugs, designing inside hula hoops or garbage can covers. Traditional teaching has been a guided tour, a process of conveying "how to" by adults to children. The circus illustrates a class as a discovery place inviting inventors, dress up artists, stage designers and clowns to look through trunks, explore dressing rooms and browse through flea markets. It is a place to try on objects and try out ideas. This view of art as an exploratory performance over a stage holds up well when translated into drawing and painting surfaces.

Children audition everything as an art supply, from burger boxes to french fry packets saved from the art suppliers of the future. Ball heads meet objects with handles in a circus. Children who dress pencils, ping pong rackets and feather dusters recognize the performance abilities of all hand tools. Giant office staplers are daringly mounted by smallfoilfigures performing to the tune of different settings on an old blender.




From the circus, I learned about kids as environmental shoppers; observers and collectors of supplies the art world has yet to discover.

Children excel in long-distance spotting: finding an incredible berry or lost ribbon under a bush while speeding by on a bike. There is a sense of importance to their discoveries, since it is not only "stuff' that is pocketed, but ideas and dreams for their use and display.

Adults see junk where kids spot treasures. If these items are allowed to make their way to home or classroom studios, however, and are saved long enough to play with, they may end up in a circus. Children's visions can unite hair curlers and play blocks, introduce clothes pins to chop sticks for a high wire act. They ignore the intended use of a thing in favor of its best creative profile.

My plea is: Keep pocket books open a bit longer, while children maintain an interest in looking through them. Don't rush to lock your drawers or keep cabinets off limits, since artistic explorations need a lifetime of support. Our circuses depend on children being able to freely browse and discover material for their acts and their art. An exciting circus cannot be produced from lists of official school art supplies. Art rooms should be like convention sites for environmental shoppers. They need to be filled by neat kids' stuff, super finds curated by a trusted adult who will not throw them out. An artist's needs cannot be predicted by someone else.

Cleaning up my children's room has been my most interesting hobby. Why are colored candle wax drippings displayed inside a jewelry box? Why are pencil shavings carefully arranged on a flattened piece of candy foil? Without

such raw mateials ia child's roomi. co ild not function as a full time art factory. But where Jlo all these things come from? Afti all, it was onlylast week tnat the room was thoroughly cleanedi.And why do 6iildren constan:tlyput in a claim for more materials, always saying "I need it' t ieverything? They patiently wait for all kinds of package wrappin: i; and material discds., They. arei: th :only ones who are happyw hen-a ome repair person comes, anticipating the arrival of more interesting "stuff." Adults and children can't clean up a room together without a fight, because few adults appreciate the child as collector and object connoisseur.

Just as I travel across the country performing the circus with teachers and children, so I invite everyone involved with my master class to start collecting. After all, why should I have all the fun and bring all the ideas? In our art rooms, we provide the hat boxes, lunch boxes, tool boxes, fishing tackle boxes, jewelry cases, and old trunks to look through and restock. We need material to animate, beautify, and alter, to trade and teach new tricks. Art teaching is the act of preserving children's views of the world as a large supply store, with the art class serving as one of its many

warehouses and display rooms. Dancing flashlight beams wash

through colorful plastic clothes hangers. Pipe cleaners are made into suspenders for hanging clothes clip figures dressed in shiny burger-wrapped capes. From the circus, I learned about

the multi-media nature of children's play and art

In plays such as the circus, children become animators, sound effects artists, ventriloquists, script "speakers," scenic and lighting designers. Circuses showcase such fleeting art forms and new media as foil sculpting, shadow casting, or comb strumming. Performers are shaped as much by object auditions as descriptive talking and brainstorm-style performing. The sharing of ideas about a sculpture in progress, or cialoges between objects ....... E E E E E . ... . ::: . ..

ari their har i in the-pres ene of an audience-iese are all part f the art.

II Creative lays have ami': ... ...

aicessories. Playin ::bank, post office, i

or circus ge:erate wonderfu stamps and stampir ts of money and harge cadcs, or-te rawing of tickets and the :

painting of posters and backdrops. It is a less selfconscious and more lively art which is made in the service ofplaying. In play, art students become children confident to seek ideas within themselves. Segregated art forms are comfortably integrated in a play. Naming a circus act, the architecture of the stage, the choreography of performers and even publicity efforts are part of the show.

It's all a canvas, including bodies, as children dress everything and everyone. How do you think bananas or raisins originally got their clothing? In children's art, not only is the sculpture dressed, but often the sculptor. Players in costume take a more intense part in any performance, regardless of age, as




clothes alter the mood and loosen inhibitions. If you want your drawing tool to dance and juggle lines, what might you wear? From behind the clown face, there is a new voice; from behind a top hat or a mitten, you have a new drawing hand.

There should be a dressing corer in every art class, with a mirror, a disguise box, and an old trunk filled with costumes. We have boxes marked "For Circus Stars Only", where incredible noses, sun glasses and crazy fabrics reside. Hawaiian shirts and historic costumes are collected for dream dressing, rock shows, or historic fashion balls. The latest fashion of each season, such as unusual kids' socks, umbrellas, talking slippers and new bandages, are shared.

Ducky, the tig rope artist,,.wbbles ?ia&cross an old:pingi t ;iioa-

I tenna. When sfalls and l her - head, a sympathetic roar ad r recove. Chais rattle inside-a bu.rla sack to provi the sAndt.r,ack frI Boris. the w aded, crab Thi

er e edg ttestits newcol- ored sponge shoes to the'isod of p- plauseforthe inventorand the na'rator , of the work. From the circus, I learned thai

art classes need to be discover y: places.

Art classes designed for researc> are renamed "test kitchens" and "wiza's labs," with opportunities to unwrap nd take things apart, to dig up and try outl- collections, visualize possibilities through playing with objects. Art search is simulated through plays such as the circus, where children find objects and ideas, develop acts, design settings, and work like artists by defining their own tasks.

Adult teaching models leave art at a distance. For instance, fruit is set up for a still life. The apple is viewed a la

Cezanew ChiMren, ho:We , bite faces into the apple, drwnwitfhts peels, juggle with it or dress itfor a show. A :ctiss-uchasthecicus move children closer t eriencing art, the center stage of creai playing, where lively bodiesald actil hands are engaged. Arimaking,. fcourse, is a "hands on" experien The playful hadin:of .! obj.ec"elps to animate, no: only citu fi:gures, but all art tools. Children's hearts beat faster; their active bodies andAiwirling play acts are sig-tffie ecte:ei:e that transforms art iakers. |

i ds are of the eats and under tabes and yowouldot beleve it- noth errible ens! Active, artistic search com involves these chi'ileDuring the making of a circus, th is talkis children announce new ideas a shr discoveries; there is mo entoffurnmiture as children lea n colaortn M_ving and trading are done with coopera'on. We witness how active search in a urposeful play d dei -ileadto ca Art teachers can leanto trust children, imdividually and even in an eberant, dynamic play ..group.

Inside a riesitcase, a red and white-checkered tcloth is draped. Hand painted signs inounce Bozo the

Bu? '- Man and Gery the Giraffe. The s strw perfrmers ar held together by -pink hair"curlers d: colored paper clips.An open cake fi is the cage from which a fy rkey, wearing an

:.Americ.es pin is introduced. M:df-bom stuffed surgical gloves, the bird sports bright markerfeathers and stickers which glow in the beam ofa cel- lophane-coveredflashlight. Humorand invention abound as children discover new possibilities in performance.

From the Circus I Learned of the Importance of Studying Children's Home Art and Inventions.

After years of being entertained by animated silverware and talking bathtub sponges and being invited to countless doll house tea parties, I finally considered bringing to school the fun and creative opportunities of home artists.

To learn about how art is made without art teachers and art materials, we need to study the wide range of children's creative engagements outside of class. Art teachers are important, but we also need people who understand and value home finds and can redefine their contributions. We need to become observers and supporters of home players, and to transport and transplant home plays to school. As part of each play, there can be a presentation of art history, to include the history of the objects involved, for example, the rich history of dolls, doll houses, baseball cards and toys. Through such study, we can look at the history of furnishings, fashion, architecture, design and drawings. The visual history of the American circus can be told through magnificent posters, beautiful souvenirs, and interesting toys. Children who build an interest in collecting and valuing old objects build a strong foundation for the appreciation of art history.

In home plays, we note how well children are able to create alone. It is surprising to many teachers that children can develop the circus without an advanced description of how and what to do. Such opportunities to work independently need to be afforded to potential artists. Those who experience the pleasure of independent playing and art making preserve a pride in being idea generators. They continue to look




to themselves for the best ideas. In our circus, few are too shy to show and tell about their great inventions. We also notice how well kids work together in a circus. Future art forms such as video arts, rock stage design, etc., require teams who are able to play together.

Young children are constantly making and inventing things; we continue this tradition in the circus. Emphasizing the beauty and sat isfatio' ak-ig one's own th.gs ip....i- rtant for chilld- who so qidkly tu:-mrn into consumers w'-ith:e magic

?words, "Buyit for me!"'tists make what they dream about not whati -y see on the Home Shopping Netwoa:. The feeling thatwe can make anyth'ng, .l that whatis handmade is fi and a good as what can be bog: needs . pervation from cho od. In a world wheret-oys ste'.il'ren's dream.I ... .... even Legos now come with instructions the size of a telephone book, to put together highly specialized pieces. We need the circus and other plays where children can make objects with their hands, where they find and redesign any given form in their environment.

In a circus, we see that children's art is also about creative ideas. Performers may limp and be crudely constructed, yet "art talk" props them up with exciting ideas, which children describe throughout the making and performing. In artist to artist, artist to object conversations, interviews, and statements, we discover the complete art intent. Unlike school art, which tends to look at finished objects resting in portfolios, we use performances to learn about the art. As in home art, even two dimensional drawings are worn, paraded, and performed with. The performance lends courage to the artist to think of new ways of seeing, using,

even writing and drawing about a work. When the G. I. Joes had to rest, the

battles continued in my son's drawing diaries. Drawings which document playing keep the noises and chases as lively as the original act. It was perhaps this energy and life that Calder felt in his regular visits to the circus or Degas experienced ringside at the Folies or at the ballet. Great plays are accompanied by significant after images, clear art marks based on felt experiences. Kids cannot stop talking after a circus; their art keeps on flowing with memories awaiting documentation. Instead of

Xy t qu et dow p Rb....... ..........g :UybeIng the rti dience,' ng Vwith. ie show iAd soaking up its mag is tw ir s.ial artks. Circus gures in our lads fre.up our tool

movers and their drawing hand ............

* .......... A FINAL BOW

All of the above cannot be done in a school. Starting as a small home show, our circuses now have been franchised to over 120 schools. We enter, pulling pull toys, coaxing stuffed elephants, and dragging inflatable pools. We are welcomed by children who feel a celebration, instead of an art lesson, in the air. In our unusual bags and suitcases are child tested props, from blankets to flashlights and hair curlers. Starting performances may be any number of plays, adventures, or magic acts in which children perform, experiment, and discover their art.

Our circus players produce not only the world's greatest shows, but they smile more often and have more ideas to share than in an art class based only on one person's idea and plan. Circuses open up school spaces, moves, and moods, revealing playgrounds where classes used to be, and experimental stages, which were formerly just art papers.

So, what did you learn in the art class today? If you participated in our play, you may have seen an art world that is still open and waiting for your contributions. We demonstrated that in an art class, everything can be played with; the environment is just filled with tools, supplies, and props. It is all an art stage awaiting discovery. All objects can be dressed and prepared to go on stage; set up, decorated, redesigned, transformed. Everything can be animated and become a sculpture tool and material. We spread the sense that art is fun and close to the child's play experience.'iSuch open des are essential ti' o iture artis who re expected to iiscover thiiown art fo ds. .......

You m a-ave learned that aits are inventor I traisform' ofther. nii mg T.hey can, mn fact, rmk e

something from an gthing and sfover stars in wha t others igorl o scarc. In playing with objects, we learn that all art making is a performance that needs lively rehearsals. Can it be concluded, then, that art teachers are simply different? They are more fun, of course. They also need to do things differently if the art class is to become a unique place in the school and in children's lives. In the art class, it is desirable to touch things, to play with objects that you or the art teacher may bring to class. It's a place where things can be moved, where you can move, and even get on the floor, and where you may find a teacher playing with you. It's a great place where your ideas are valued and you are constantly encouraged to make choices and be your own artist.

George Szekely is Professor and Director of Graduate StudiesforArt Education, University ofKentucky, Lexington, KY.




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