This is the second in a series of profiles of the teachers who were notified they would be laid off unless the school funding initiative passes. This week’s profile features Irene Blanchard, our wonderful art teacher.
Malibu High is a school blessed with an abundance of artists. If you visit the art rooms during Open House, when student work is displayed, you will be floored by the variety of their creations, and by their incredible talent. Painting, sculpture, ceramics, drawings, cartoons, prints-any and all media are displayed covering every nook and cranny of the large, airy art room.
Two years ago, Irene Blanchard joined the art department. She had previously been a parent volunteer, and had many years experience teaching art at every level, including at various colleges. She is also an accomplished artist, as anyone who enjoyed her murals covering the walls of Cooke’s Market can verify. Irene brought a jolt of energy to the art department. Because she taught at the college level for many years, she decided to help our many talented artists gain admission to the country’s finest art schools.
Admission to art school is determined almost exclusively by the strength of the student’s portfolio. Because it would be cumbersome for art students to pack up their paintings and sculptures and send them to art schools with their applications, the nation’s art schools began “Portfolio Day.” At this event, art students show their work to representatives of the major art schools, who fly around the country to attend these meetings. The art school representative examines the student’s work, and can grant provisional acceptance to the school, subject to verification of grades and test scores.
Irene Blanchard and fellow art teacher Anna Lovejoy took their seniors to Portfolio Day and then reviewed the experience with their students. They found that the school representatives were impressed with the caliber of the MHS students’ work, but felt that our students lacked experience in drawing and painting live subjects. The two art teachers, using money donated by parents, then hired a professional model who came once a week to pose for the art classes. This year, the representatives were very impressed with the caliber of the students’ work, and many of our top students were accepted to first-rate schools. Ms. Blanchard also brought the juniors to Portfolio Day, so they could benefit from criticisms and comments made about their work before they had to apply next year. We have to be one of the only public high schools in the country where art students work with live professional models.
Since she taught the class at the college level for many years, last year Ms. Blanchard began MHS’ first college-level art history class. This is one of the most difficult Advanced Placement (AP) classes-3,000 years of art are crammed into a single year’s study. It is so difficult that less than a thousand high schools in the country, both public and private, teach it at all. The first year’s class went extremely well, and many students qualified for college credit. She also taught AP studio art, which enables students to earn college credit for their art works. Again, our students did very well.
I am treasurer of Arts Angels, the booster club that supports the arts programs at Malibu High, and I have experienced firsthand Ms. Blanchard’s enthusiasm for her subject matter. Her zeal to improve offerings in the department often resulted in a scramble for extra funds, but it was money well spent. You may notice the many trash cans in our community with ceramic murals of Malibu scenes gracing their sides. This was a project headed by Ms. Blanchard and sponsored by the Optimist Club. The Art Department’s rendition of sharks will soon grace our campus as well.
After helping our students gain acceptance to the country’s major art schools, after initiating a college-level art history class that only a handful of high schools teach, after bringing live models to the school, and after spending countless after-school hours working with students on their projects, Ms. Blanchard has been notified that she is about to be laid off. Can we afford to lose Irene? Is this how we thank her for her tremendous improvements to our art program? We as a community should be outraged that such a thing could happen.
Please support the school funding initiative on the June ballot. Please urge the Malibu City Council to increase the level of funding it contributes to our schools. Let’s save the teachers and programs that make our school superior.
Susan Kraus