Founders Story

Manifestation is the process or evolution of bringing desires to life. My manifestation with the arts began in my childhood at the age of 8. Like many creatives, hearing disparaging remarks about supporting myself with the Arts was a powerful temporary deterrent.

Opportunity & Purpose

Being a stay-at-home mother was one of the most difficult roles I have ever had, compounded by witnessing your child battle Leukemia for three years. Those three years were a lesson in patience, faith, self-reflection, and reconnecting with what purpose outside of being a mother looks like.

Little did I know my reconnecting with my passion for art would spark creativity in my two children as we spent many afternoons drawing and painting, resulting with my son asking for his very own Art Exhibit. You can imagine my excitement in making that dream come true! complete with program lovingly crafted by Dad, catering (potluck), and framing of artwork compliments of our wonderful family friend Linda Pardew. The guest list of family, neighbors, and clinical staff were blown away by the exceptional art pieces our son created and how enthusiastic he was to share. Magic!

The self-reflection and self-discovery moments invited deeper thinking about my purpose. Ensuring my children received a quality education was paramount, which brought me to the question…what is a quality education? That timeless adage “Education is the key to your future” is a phrase that many of us have heard, yet too often we don’t consider disparity in education between social classes. Historically, compulsory public education was structured for certain learning styles that did not accommodate visual or kinesthetic learners, which unfortunately contributed to missed opportunities and a faltering public education contributing to a decline in academic performance nationally. This is seen and felt more by children in under-resourced communities. What I learned as a psychology major conducting research on the arts and their place in education, is that standardized testing or intelligence tests do not identify gifted children with creative talents. Creative giftedness is considered as important if not more than intelligence tests as explained by researchers Edith Cobb and E. Paul Torrance, to name a few.

Community Involvement Leads to Renewed Purpose

Drawing from experience as a book editor and illustrator while with Apple Computer, Inc., we created a leadership opportunity for children in 4th and 5th grades as they assumed the roles of journalist, photographer, editor, and graphic artist, to creating an award winning art curriculum for elementary grade students as the Fine Arts Program Director. The Fine Arts program was realized through an army of parents, Parent Teacher Club, collaborative administration, and community business members who collectively made the program into a legacy program. There was however one amazing partner in crime who helped to make it all possible! Gladys Kong, who went on to take the reigns when I departed.

At the time, then Principal, Ms. Denise Hohn did something bold, she asked a parent without a teaching credential to represent her school at the Castro Valley Unified School District’s Visual Arts Performing Arts (VAPA) initiative, a three year long – grant funded program chaired by Cheryl McElhany and Elizabeth Blasquez who secured the grant funds. Their efforts ensured teachers from each of the nine elementary schools received art training from a professional artist to then take back to their respective campuses. This initiative was instrumental in establishing a comprehensive education for Castro Valley Unified School District children. However, after approximately five months into the school district’s FAME program, Palomares Elementary diverged from the canned program the school district adopted and developed their VAPA curriculum. Fortunately for the families of Palomares Elementary, their Principal, Ms. Hohn allowed me to forge a program that would go on to become truly interdisciplinary and inclusive of all artists, both classical and contemporary. Palomares was the only elementary school out of nine who garnered the California Distinguished School and National Blue Ribbon Award. As a researcher, I’m left wondering, was our unique art curriculum the variable contributing to success? The years that I spent working with the students, administration, teachers, and parents were the happiest I’d been in my professional life. This was my purpose! Below are photos taken over the years of young scholars receiving instruction from Bay Area artists, parent volunteers, and myself. We would celebrate the end of the school year with an annual Art Festival complete with catering, and scholars debuting as docents sharing their portfolios and what they learned over the course of the school year.

Fast Forward to the Future

When I was finally able to wrap my mind around envisioning an art program with impact, I had to think long and hard about the path I would take. I decided on Psychology as it married two of my loves – science and understanding the human condition. I am so glad I chose Psychology! understanding how a child is molded biologically and environmentally was profound as a mother and educator. The material, hands-on experiments, and research into the benefits of the arts and how children learn best to prepare them for the 21st Century provided a glimpse into perspective from the child, parent, and stakeholders, to proper design of programming that meets core standards and measurement outcomes. The Arts are the perfect non-threatening, effective, and practical way of learning about self, culture, history, geography, science, and nature. Today, the literature makes clear, the Arts in all modalities are one of the most powerful positive interventions that is a human necessity and contributes to a thriving nation. I’m blessed to do what I love! More importantly, share my passion for the arts with brilliant scholars eager to learn how to express their own creative ideas as opposed to replicating someone else with years of experience.

Testimonials

Virginia’s Art Portfolio (sample)

I’ve exhibited at the Adobe Art Gallery in Castro Valley, CA., and my Starry Sky Constellation has been used by the Cognitive Development (CODE) Laboratory at California State University, East Bay in their National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research on Bias.