ArtsBridge was created in 1996 at UC Irvine to till a gap in arts education. Years of budget cutbacks had resulted in the loss of many art classes in California's public schools. There's a lot of research that demonstrates that involvement in the arts reaches kids at risk. It increases attendance in school, improves relationships with teachers, allows for socially acceptable methods of expressing emotion. UCR was the first campus chosen to join UC Irvine in a pilot program last spring due to UCR's success with another arts program - the privately funded UCR Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts.
Children tend to crowd their words and make a long caterpillar of their words.
She cites some examples. One student has done more than leap across the classroom. For this one little child, this is the tonic he needed. Another student has shown similar results in writing skills. The class as a whole has developed a longer attention span, now able to stay with a topic for 40 minutes as opposed to 20 minutes earlier in the year.